Provo family who accused coach of bullying unhappy with school district review

PROVO, Utah – She admits she didn’t play a good game, but a Timpview High School volleyball player says the opposing coach went too far in making her the focus of his team’s strategy.

“I wasn’t that good at that game,” the teenager told FOX 13, “and I think he decided to grab it and say I couldn’t pass.

“And then, when the game went on, he said I couldn’t score and there was no need to block me.”

The condescending remarks the Mountain View High School coach passed on as an instruction to his players continued, the teenager said. FOX 13 agreed not to identify the student as she is still in high school.

Nine months later, the family got the Alpine School District report on the episode, but they are not satisfied. The administrator who wrote the report did not speak to the teenager or his parents.

The game took place in Mountain View on October 26th. The teen’s parents, Tolai and Nimo Leauanae, couldn’t hear what the Mountain View coach was yelling but knew something was wrong when their daughter started yelling at him.

“Everything is fair play in the huddle,” said Tolai Leauanae, admitting that an opponent’s vulnerability is targeted by how sport is played. But he says a youth coach shouldn’t belittle a teenager in front of a crowd.

“He obviously said it loud enough for the outside world to hear,” said the father.

“It just strikes me as strange that she was the one who was specifically attacked and nobody else,” said Nimo Leauanae.

The family identifies as Pacific Islanders; The Mountain View coach is white. The Leauanaes don’t necessarily believe that what was happening on the pitch was racially motivated, but that’s how the Alpine School District and the coach reacted in a meeting a few weeks later.

The family says the coach spent a lot of time talking about how much volleyball he played and trained without complaining.

“I realized he never apologized to me,” said the teenager, “and he portrayed me and my family as aggressors instead of just coming and apologizing to me.”

“He was so arrogant in everything he said,” said Tolai Leauanae. “He was like, you know, ‘I’m above this and that.’ As we were leaving the meeting, I looked at my wife and said, ‘We’ll see what’s wrong with this.’ “

The family sent the school district a public record request for investigation. The district denied the motion, but the Utah State Records Committee ordered the report to be published earlier this month.

The district sent a copy of an email a Mountain View administrator wrote in January. The trainer was said to have heard the condescending screams, but there were no verbal abuse or profanity.

Still, even some senior Mountain View players said they were uncomfortable with their coach’s behavior. Adults said that since the officers did not intervene, they did not see any problems.

The report also discusses Timpview’s coach, although not objected to, accusing her of using profanity and harassing her own players. Timpview’s trainer is also a Pacific Islander.

The school district said the Mountain View coach skipped a game, but there is no record of him being formally disciplined. The administrator who wrote the report never interviewed the Leauanaes.

“I actually wish they had done an investigation,” said Nimo Leauanae. “I wish you had spoken to us. I wish they had spoken to my daughter. “

“If anything, it was just her side,” said Tolai Leauanae. “You have not reached us.”

The couple plan to file another request for inspection of the files.

“And I think he should probably have been fired,” said Nimo Leauanae, “considering he loudly mocked and bullied a child in front of everyone.”

“The matter is not over yet,” added the mother, “by no means”.

Mountain View won that game in October, but when the two teams met in the state championship a few weeks later, Timpview took the title.

The teenager says an apology fixed things and took her a while to get over what had happened.

“But yeah, I’ll still play volleyball,” she said.

A spokesman for the Alpine school district did not respond to questions on Friday.

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