School superintendent fired after 'threatening students who didn't clap for her daughter'

A school superintendent has been fired after allegedly threatening students who didn't clap for her daughter.

Following an investigation into her behavior, the school board of a California school district voted on Tuesday to remove superintendent Marian Kim Phelps from her role.

The Del Norte High School softball team said in November that Phelps had jeopardized their ability to graduate due to an alleged affront against her daughter, who was a member of the team. 

They spoke to the school board during a meeting, claiming at the time that Phelps thought the group had not applauded her daughter loudly enough. Phelps allegedly accused several of the kids of failing to applaud her daughter during the event when she contacted and texted them late that night following a softball awards luncheon in May of last year. The students claimed that Phelps then threatened to take away their graduation rights if they didn't offer an apology to her daughter.

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At a meeting of the school board last year, coach Tom Peronto stated that he had informed the board about Phelps' "abuse of power" and that this had put his livelihood in jeopardy.

"Because I had exposed these abuses and emails to the board members, she then falsely accused me of verbally attacking a member of the board in the district parking lot, using this as justification to have me fired from coaching softball at Del Norte,” Peronto said.

The board decided to end Phelps' contract during a closed session on Tuesday, according to school board president Michelle O'Connor-Ratcliff. The investigation began on November 15 and finished on April 18. Numerous papers and comments from 41 witnesses were examined as part of the investigation, and they refuted Phelps' claims.

"Based on her conduct, as revealed to the Board through the investigation, the Board has lost all confidence and trust in Dr. Phelps’ ability to continue to serve as Superintendent, as well as in her ability to continue to work collaboratively with the Board as part of Poway Unified’s governance team," O’Connor-Ratcliff said. O'Connor-Ratcliff cited rules pertaining to the privacy of both personnel and students in her remarks, but offered no further details.

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In November, a lawsuit was filed in San Diego County over matter, naming the student just as Jane Doe. According to the lawsuit, Phelps set up a biased internal inquiry against the girl and "constructed a narrative falsely suggesting" that the student had harassed her daughter. Phelps "unilaterally" recognized a "intense rivalry" between her daughter and other student-athletes on the softball team, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claimed that as a result, the girl was disqualified from all extracurricular activities for her senior year, including dancing, field trips, student organizations, graduation, and playing softball. Phelps was accused of providing the student and her parents with a "Other Means of Correction Contract" that agreed to the discipline in less than a day.