2 Oklahoma high school football coaches charged in separate abuse, civil rights cases
Two Oklahoma high school football coaches were charged in separate cases on Tuesday — one abuse and the other a civil rights case.
They were the latest developments in long sagas for both Kingfisher and Ringling High Schools.
Kingfisher High School is 50 miles northwest of Oklahoma City; Ringling is around 105 miles south of the capital city.
KINGFISHER COACHES CHARGED
The Oklahoman reported Kingfisher coach Jeff Myers was charged with felony child neglect, assistant coach Micah Nall was charged with felony child abuse and perjury, Kingfisher board member Dana Golbek and Justin Mecklenburg, the father of one of the accusers, were both charged with failure to report abuse.
The charges stemmed from a February 2022 lawsuit that accused the school district and coaches of negligence after freshmen football players were allegedly hazed.
Players in the program conducted boxing and wrestling matches known as "The Ring" in the locker room to settle differences.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and Oklahoma Department of Education stepped in to carry out the investigation.
Former players admitted to the state bureau of investigation that Myers knew about the behavior and multiple people said they saw him watching fights, per The Oklahoman. Video published by the newspaper from 2018 shows players fighting in the locker room.
The accusations were made by a student at a May school board meeting and the plaintiff's attorney called for the coach's firing.
On October 11, a lawsuit naming the state superintendent and Department of Education Oklahoma Supreme Court alleged nearly two decades of abuse and cover-ups under Myers that included sexual assault and physical assault.
The suit contends the claims made by one of the victims were first made in 2021, but district and state officials negligently failed to take action.
“We have a well-documented record that multiple students have been subjected to bullying, hazing, abuse, and sexual assault, boys in the locker room at Kingfisher Public Schools, yet Kingfisher refuses to do anything about it,” Nathan Hall, an attorney for one of the victims, told the court, News9 in Oklahoma City reports.
RINGLING COACH CHARGED IN SEPARATE CASE
Ringling principal and head football coach Phillip Koons faces up to a year in jail and up to $500 in fines if found guilty of misdemeanor charges filed against him in Jefferson County District Court Tuesday relating to a separate lengthy investigation.
The Oklahoman reported the OSBI charged Koons with outraging public decency on Tuesday after a months-long investigation into allegations that the coach used "profane, degrading and derogatory language towards student-athletes under his supervision."
News 9 reported a victim statement included a claim that Koons made players endure punishments in the locker room that were sexual in nature.
The charges outline behavior between August 2021 and February.
Koons - who guided the Blue Devils to a Class A state runner-up finish in 2021 to Cashion after Ringling beat the Wildcats two years prior to that for the title - was placed on administrative leave in February while the NAACP in Oklahoma called for a civil rights investigation due to displaying a "continuous patter of egregious indifference" to sexual and racial-based harassment, News 9 reports.
-- Andy Buhler | andy@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveok
Lead photo courtesy of Karen Schwartz
