Deaf Students Protest Coach’s Replacement

EXCLUSIVE California School for the Deaf students protest coach’s replacement.



RIVERSIDE, CA - At least 90 teenagers at California School for the Deaf, Riverside, left morning classes Thursday, Oct. 31, to protest the replacement of the high school boys’ basketball coach.



Students demonstrated outside the gym over what they said was the forced resignation of coach Jeremias Valencia and the hiring of former coach David Hamilton.



“We don’t want him to be our coach,” 11th grader Miranda Murphy wrote. “We’re trying to get Jeremias back.”



The California Department of Education issued a statement from Riverside campus Superintendent Mal Grossinger.



“I can appreciate that the students in question feel strongly about who serves as their basketball coach, but this is ultimately a personnel decision that had to be made by administrators,” Grossinger said. “We will continue to encourage the students to return to class and discuss more constructive ways to share their views.”



Students had painted a banner saying “We want Coach V. back” and hung it on the chain link fence that faces Arlington Avenue along with other signs protesting the coach’s being replaced. ... Read more: http://blog.pe.com/high-schools/2013/10/31/riverside-deaf-students-protest-coachs-replacement/