False Accusations of Racism
My question involves slander in the state of: Maryland
I am a high school coach who has been falsely accused of racism by the parent of a player whom is disgruntled about their child's playing time. The player played in over 90% of the games this season, but she didn't play where her dad wanted to and it made him very upset. During the season he had confronted me in the parking lot several times. He also sent threatening and disparaging (both about me and my players) text messages. These were reported to the school administration and the parent was brought in by the AD and told to stop. After the texts didn't stop I informed him that I would file a harassment charge with the police if it continued. After that he finally stopped, but then he went to the head of athletics for the county and claimed I was "being racist towards his daughter" and "ran the team with a racist attitude that kept black kids from wanting to play." I met with him and our administration and he had absolutely no facts to back up his accusations, which is not surprising since they aren't based on reality. He's just a frustrated parent who's kid isn't playing as well as he'd like and he's apparently gone off the deep end lashing out at me. While I'm glad that the school has looked into these accusations and cleared my name in their mind, I'm very concerned that these false allegations could continue to haunt me in the future as the high school coach, a travel coach, professionally in my day job and in my day to day life in the community.
My questions are:
Do I have grounds for filing a slander suit against this parent?
If so, am I just going to end up burning my own money up in the process or would I be able to make him pay for the cost of the lawsuit if I were to win? I don't have any desire to make money here, in fact I would be willing to spend some to publicly clear my name, but I certainly can't afford to run up thousands of dollars in legal bills to do so.
thanks,
Frustrated Coach :(
Re: False Accusations of Racism
At the present time, no, you do not since you have not suffered any actual damages. It's barely possible that in future you might IF at some time this comes back as you fear, but even then you'll have an extremely tough row to hoe because if he sincerely believes that you are racist, he has the right to state that opinion even if he is wrong.
Re: False Accusations of Racism
Thanks for the quick reply. That's very frustrating to hear that someone can make false acusations that could ruin someone's reputation without having to supply any proof. These are exactly the type of people that make good coaches leave the profession. It's a sad world we live in...
Re: False Accusations of Racism
Would it be a better world if the law limited what we were allowed to say and what opinions we could legally express?
You have the right to make negative remarks about him - is he not entitled to the same right? What if he honestly believes what he is saying?
We have a great many freedoms in this country, and sometimes it's mighty inconvenient that the other guy has the same ones. I'm not unsympathetic to your situation, but it's hard to put limits on the other guy's rights if we want to keep our own.
Re: False Accusations of Racism
This isn't a matter of him going around talking about it to parents, which would be stating his opinion. I'm sure he does that too, and I don't like it, but understand that's within his rights as an American to exercise his freedom of speech. He reported it to my work place, which has direct effect on my livelihood. He didn't just say he thinks I'm a racist, he said I was acting racist towards his daughter. If you make those types of allegations that can affect a person’s ability to provide for their family the burden of proof should be on the accuser to at least show there is some truth to that statement. He was called in to the school and giving the opportunity to provide examples of racist behavior and was unable to come up with anything at all, but would not retract his claim despite having absolutely nothing behind it. It certainly seems like slander by all of the definitions I've found online.
The ironic thing about this whole situation is I'm a very liberal person and I live in a community where Caucasians are a minority. I'm very aware of the horrible amount of racism that goes on in the world as I see it around me on a daily basis. This is the case of a loony parent trying to use a major social problem as a battering ram to get his kid more playing time and he doesn't care if it ruins someone else’s career in process. I stand by my assertion that it's a very sad world we live in if people can make these types of allegation without having to back them up.
Re: False Accusations of Racism
But it didn't ruin your career, did it? And the law does not allow you to sue for something that has not happened and may never happen.
Re: False Accusations of Racism
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Quoting
cbg
But it didn't ruin your career, did it? And the law does not allow you to sue for something that has not happened and may never happen.
I guess that's still as yet to be seen. I certainly hope not, but I'm not optomistic. It certainly wouldn't be the first time that I've seen a coach get replaced simply to quiet a parent. All coaches in our state are on a year to year contract and replacing a coach is always the easiest route for the administration.
Re: False Accusations of Racism
Well, when and if you are replaced and unable to find another job, and you can provide proof that it is SOLELY due to these accusations, we can revisit your options. As things stand now, no matter how much you may wish the the law allows you to sue someone for having an opinion, you cannot.