A high school football coach in California has been fired, allegedly for making anti-LGBTQ comments to players on the team.
According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, Morro Bay High School coach David Kelley, a teacher at the school, was relieved of his coaching duties after making an off-color comment to some of the football team members.
It’s not clear what exactly Kelley said that drove his players to report him to school administrators. One report in the San Luis Obispo Tribune carried this account of the incident:
“JV was sort of messing around and Kelley told them to stop it and get to practice,” [senior Rocky] Brebes said. “The student was sitting there and just smiling at Kelley not doing anything like getting going and ready and Kelley got even more mad and said, ‘Stop looking at me like a homosexual and get the (expletive) to practice.’”
The response from the school administration was swift and harsh.
“What I can say is the coach directed comments to a student athlete that would offend anybody in the LGBTQ community — actually they would offend anybody,” school principal Kyle Pruitt told the San Luis Obispo Tribune. “I was offended when I heard it.”
The decision probably wasn’t too difficult for administrators. The Morro Bay High School varsity football team was 7-33 over the last four seasons under Kelley’s leadership.
