Fired Crossland Coach Speaks Out

TEMPLE HILLS, Md. (WUSA) --  9NEWS NOW obtained video of a controversial game at Crossland High School that ended in a fight last month.  It also cost 8 coaches their jobs, and the rest of the school's football season.

Angry parents attended Thursday night's school board meeting in Prince George's County.    But the agenda item kept getting pushed back, after 9:45 p.m.

Crossland High school varsity football team in Temple Hills, Md. is accused of unsportsmanlike conduct on and off the field forcing the players to sit on the bench.

Darlene Prather was one of those parents who wanted answers from the school board about the swift action that penalized the entire school.   But she was kept waiting.

Prather says, "Everyone wants to duck and dodge."

Prather says the says the decision to fire the coaches and end the season early at Crossland h.s. was wrong. 

Prather says, "They say children come first.  They should say children come first except at Crossland. I want the coaches to get their jobs back and the principal to be gone."

 
Crossland's high school principal fired the varsity and junior varsity football coaches partly because of what happened the game against the potomac wolverines.

Potomac wins 53-0.  Players were kicking the extra point but in the sloppy mess the player slips, falls and a fight breaks out.

The 20 second fight and what happened off the field cost the Crossland Cavaliers the rest of the season and 8 coaches their jobs.

Only on 9 one of those coaches speaks out. Marvin Jackson has spent more than 2 decades coaching football in Prince George's County. 

Jackson says, "I gave 23 years and this is how they treat me?"

Jackson says the principal never talked to him about losing his job he was told by the head coach. Jackson says the entire school is being unfairly punished.

At the Thursday Night's school board meeting 9News Now tried to find out why they pushed back the agenda to delay public comment on the subject.

 
We asked school superintendent William Hite about the decision behind penalizing students and coaches. Hite says, "The decision was made by the principal."

The superintendent has traditionally puts principals in charge of the decisions of their schools.  But Crossland High School Principal Charles Thomas has refused to talk to 9News Now for the last three weeks since he made the decision to end the season early.

The school says it will have a new coaching staff for the Fall 2010 season.