Rome Sentinel

Clinton track coach files complaint

BY STEVE JONES Sports writer

CLINTON — Norm Deep Jr. is back as the head coach of the Clinton varsity indoor track teams but he is getting his day in court about the circumstances behind his suspension. Deep is scheduled to appear in State Supreme Court in Utica on Jan. 6, 2022.

Deep was placed on paid administrative leave at the Nov. 16 meeting of the Board of Education. After a few days that included a protest by students in support of Deep, the board reinstated him.

“I’ve been blown away by the community support and the kids I’d coached 10, 20, 30 years ago, throughout this,” Deep said recently after his reinstatement. “As far as I’m concerned, the people have spoken.”

Why was he suspended? “That’s a great question,” said Deep. “The process has been extremely veiled from the district. I haven’t been notified what the situation was specifically.”

Deep, who has spent 30 years teaching in the district, filed a complaint in State Supreme Court on Nov. 22, naming the school district, superintendent Dr. Stephen L. Grimm, the school board, board president Melinda Leising, vice-president Mary Lou Lauchert and board members

Lyndsey Bauer, Megan Burdick, Kevin Maydon, Luke Perry and Erica Shaw.

In it, Deep claims discrimination based on gender and disability. Deep claims to have been “subjected to a work environment that is hostile and tainted with retaliatory and discriminatory treatment.” He claims the gender-based discrimination was because the defendants perceived him to have assisted a female former employee of the district in complaints of gender discrimination. That employee, Marissa Rys, was an assistant coach for Deep and his daughter’s field hockey coach.

Rys, the complaint states, had issues with how she was treated compared to male coaches. “She complained that the administrators in the District wanted her to refrain from meeting with students in her room because of stereotypes and sexual innuendo,” the complaint states. Deep advised her to seek legal advice.

She was fired as field hockey coach in June 2018 and replaced by the superintendent’s wife, it notes. The next month she filed a notice of claim alleging gender discrimination and retaliation. Her lawsuit related to the allegations is pending.

The complaint notes that the district had a policy of not hiring those related to officials in the district. “Grimm skirted this prohibition by arranging to have his wife employed by BOCES to work for the Clinton Central School District.” He then “changed this policy so he could hire his wife as an employee of the District.” Deep claims he complained about this to the athletic director at the time, the current athletic director and the high school principal and assistant principal.

Deep claims that Grimm confronted him about support of Rys and his complaints about the hiring of his wife around Oct. 15, 2018. He said the superintendent was “yelling and screaming in words and substance ‘I know it was you. This whole Marissa Thing. This conflict of interest nightmare. I’ve got news for you pal … I’m not going anywhere. I’ll see you gone before I go. I might stay here 12 more years if that’s what it takes to make your life miserable enough to go.’” He “refused to communicate with (Deep) and commenced a hostile work environment continuing to the present day.”

The complaint states that Grimm “began a campaign of retaliation” that included diminishing the accomplishments of teams Deep coaches, denying funding and fair and equal treatment of the programs’ coaches and refusing to recognize Deep for winning the state Coach of the Year award. At the Nov. 16 board meeting this year, Deep claims Grimm added a last minute agenda item to “publicly humiliate, suspend, and remove” him as coach without notice to

Deep.

The complaint also notes that this summer he discussed with the principal the temperature in his classroom in relation to his disabilities, which require a cooler temperature. Wearing a mask, as Deep notes he has done in accordance with COVID-related rules, can exacerbate this. His request for a portable air conditioner, supported by a doctor’s note, was rejected, he claims.

The complaint also noted that Deep was never given a reason for why he was suspended as coach.

As a result of the incidents listed in the complaint, Deep alleges he suffered “embarrassment, humiliation, degradation, anxiety, severe emotional distress, stress, weight loss, harm to reputation and good name, insomnia, anger, family discord and harm, headaches, nervousness, loss of appetite, and pain.”

A request for comment to Dr. Grimm’s office was not returned.

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2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

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