Sparks’ lawsuit against South Kitsap School District will proceed

Plaintiff alleges 2011 firing was based on racial discrimination

Derek Sparks’ lawsuit against the South Kitsap School District and former superintendent Dave LaRose will proceed after a motion for summary judgment was denied in U.S. District Court.

Judge Ronald Leighton on Dec. 16 denied the defendants’ motion.

On March 18, Leighton granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Sparks’ wrongful-termination claim. But he denied the defendants’ attempts to take the same action with Sparks’ 11 remaining claims, which include racial discrimination and retaliation.

Sparks, who was hired as the fifth football coach in as many years in June at Seattle’s Garfield High School, worked as a career counselor from 2009-11 within SKSD. He also served as a football and track assistant coach at South Kitsap High School.

The only conclusion that both parties seem to agree upon is that SKSD’s board of directors voted not to renew Sparks’ contract.

“With so much in dispute there is no point to recite it all in a ‘summary’ proceeding,” Leighton wrote Dec. 16. “Suffice it to say, this case was destined for trial and the time and effort to mount the summary judgment motion would have been better spent on trial preparation.”

No trial date has been set.

According to court documents, SKSD officials did not renew Sparks’ contract because of “abuse of sick leave, abuse of professional leave, and lying to human resources about the uses of sick leave and professional leaves.”

Sparks, who is African-American, claims that decision was racially motivated. It is not his first legal action against an academic institution; he sued a California preparatory school before coming north to play football at Washington State University.

With regard to SKSD, Sparks said all of his sick and professional leave was authorized by his supervisor, Thomas Mosby, the director of career and technical education until he left in 2013 to run Highline School District’s Puget Sound Skills Center. Mosby denied to investigators that he approved the absences.

Sparks also alleged that he was subjected to disparate treatment because of his race. He said a trio of SKHS staff members — teachers Jim Fairweather and Dave Neighbors and career center coordinator Sandy Elton — made racially insensitive remarks on separate occasions. All three have denied the allegations.

According to court documents, Sparks said he also resigned his position with the school’s football program because he no longer could tolerate other coaches on the staff “who were jealous of his celebrity status, write-ups in the newspaper and great connection with the students.”

Sparks claimed that he complained about the alleged racist remarks to Mosby, but he did not take action, or when he sent a December 2010 email complaining that Elton still was insubordinate and badmouthing Sparks.

At some point, Sparks alleged that Elton took a document from his desk that showed he had been paid for a speaking engagement at WSU and gave it to Greg Roberts, who was SKSD’s assistant superintendent for human resources before departing in 2012.

Sparks claimed that Mosby warned him in May 2011 that district officials were going to “railroad” him. Roberts emailed Sparks on May 11 to inform him that the district was investigating the possibility that he violated his employment contract and SKSD’s conflict-of-interest policies. Five days later, Sparks learned that Elton had told Roberts that he was selling T-shirts out of his office. Sparks said his intention was to make a T-shirt donation to SKHS’ track team.

In June 2011, Sparks said Mosby “frantically” showed up at his office with a document claiming that he approved “the leave days in question.” Sparks said Mosby asked him to tell Roberts and then-deputy superintendent Kurt Wagner that the leave was not approved and that he lied about it. In response, Sparks told Mosby that Roberts’ report was “all lies.”

LaRose met with Sparks the following month and told him he would recommend that his contract not be renewed. Sparks alleges that LaRose pressured him to resign or “he would never work again in education.”

Even though LaRose did not make the alleged racist remarks, Sparks said his complaints were ignored and the superintendent exerted his position of authority to terminate him “because of his race and ethnicity.”

LaRose, who left SKSD in July 2012 to become superintendent of the Culver City Unified School District in California, denied making a threat, and stated that Sparks had not pled any facts that connect him to any intentional discrimination.

On July 13, 2011, SKSD’s board of directors voted to not renew Sparks’ contract. Sparks believes he was fired for retaliation because of his complaints to supervisors about the treatment he received from colleagues.

Soon after Sparks complained, SKSD officials initiated an investigation into his use of sick leave. Shortly after, LaRose made it clear that Sparks’ contract would not be renewed.

Sparks’ complaint seeks punitive damages against LaRose because he alleges he acted in “conscious disregard” for Sparks’ constitutional and federally protected rights.

SKSD’s board of directors passed a resolution Tuesday night that the district “will defend and indemnify David LaRose against any and all claims, actions, and causes of action, which arise out of his performance or failure of performance of duties for, or employment with, the District, provided that he was acting in good faith and within the scope of his employment and in compliance with the policies and procedures of the District, that are connected with Derek Sparks’ lawsuit dated August 9, 2013 and filed against the South Kitsap School District and David LaRose.”

As an adolescent, Sparks dreamed of playing for UCLA, but he had a messy transfer from Montclair Prep, where he played as a junior, to Mater Dei in 1990. He alleged the Van Nuys, Calif., school lowered his grades and misrepresented his academic standing to college scouts after he left.

Sparks sued Montclair Prep for $40 million just months after graduating from Mater Dei.

The lawsuit was settled out of court, and Sparks was awarded an undisclosed annuity to be paid throughout his lifetime.

He has used some of the proceeds to make donations to Mater Dei, his fraternity at WSU, where he earned a business degree, and “GAMETIME,” a Seattle-based youth organization based in Seattle.

Sparks chronicled his high-school experiences in the 1999 book “Lessons of the Game: The Untold Story of High School Football,” co-written with Stuart K. Robinson.

“That ghost haunts you for a long time even when you’re an adult,” Sparks said in a 2009 interview. “I wondered what was wrong with me and why wasn’t I good enough. I think a lot of young people write me and talk about those non-athletic challenges. I feel blessed I was able to tell that story.”

At WSU, the 5-foot-11 running back gained 234 yards on 69 carries as a sophomore, but missed the following season with a shoulder injury. He retired from football after injuring his right knee in training camp with the San Francisco 49ers.

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