POWAY, Calif. (KGTV) — Students at a Poway High School say their superintendent harassed them and called one student late at night, upset about alleged bullying of her daughter on the Del Norte High School softball team.
The students, their parents, and coaches of the team claim it happened after Marian Kim Phelps believed players didn't clap enough for her daughter at a team softball banquet in May.
Now, the district is taking new action, but it's not against the superintendent.
After a special board meeting Wednesday, the district announced it is launching a new investigation into bullying on the team, as well as district employee involvement in it.
"One of the parents thought her daughter didn't get enough claps, so she started an investigation, and five months later we're all still dealing with this," one player on the team said. Her comments came during public comment at the district's November 9 school board meeting.
At the meeting, one after another, softball coaches, players, and their parents got on the microphone.
"The superintendent of school (district) is blurring the line of what her job is, and her job as a parent. She's using her position to intimidate others," Mike Roberts told ABC 10News.
Phelps' daughter plays on the Del Norte softball team. At some point last school year, the school launched an investigation into alleged bullying on the team. The player's parents believe the superintendent is behind the previous investigation, which the parents allege was flawed and biased.
Multiple parents also claim Phelps threatened who she believed was the ringleader behind the "no-clap".
"She made a phone call out to one of the other seniors on the team to complain and threaten that student and the seniors, that they would not be able to walk at graduation unless they admitted to this bullying," Roberts said,
At the school board meeting on Wednesday, Phelps' daughter, Jessica, spoke during public comment. She said her mother asked her not to speak, but she still wanted to stand up for her mom.
"My mom has never threatened any student and she would never do that," Jessica Phelps said.
The board then went into a closed session, before coming out with a statement, announcing it was opening an outside independent investigation into the softball team.
Phelps took questions from the media and denied she ever called a student demanding an admission at around midnight. She also said she never threatened to take away any student's graduation privileges.
Phelps pushed back on the idea that the clapping spurred on the investigation.
"Absolutely not," she said. "I was more saddened by watching what my daughter had to experience, with the type of bullying, with not even celebrating at a softball banquet." She continued, "It had nothing to do with the clapping or whether or not anybody received claps."
The school board says the district is hiring an outside firm for the new independent investigation into the softball team. Parents and coaches were upset with who was interviewed in the previous investigation.
