Saranac Lake volleyball coach Mike Navarra watches the action with players in fall 2019. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

SARANAC LAKE — A portion of the Saranac Lake Central School District community is in the middle of a large, controversial discussion around student suspensions, coach dismissals, First Amendment rights and race.

The last several board meetings have brought numerous people out to talk about these issues after the suspension of a student athlete for a social media post and the dismissal of the varsity volleyball coach, who is also the student’s father, for alleged misconduct on the court.

The administration and its school board are now being confronted with allegations of First Amendment rights violations, breaking policy, collusion and retaliation. The board has expressed confidence in the administration to make the right decisions. SLCSD Superintendent Diane Fox said last month she can’t comment on what is going on, and that she is legally bound to not discuss it in public. Athletic Director Forrest Morgan also said he would not comment on the situation.

Last month, school administrators — Fox, High School Principal Josh Dann and Morgan — suspended a student athlete, who is Black, for a social media post using the n-word and f-word. The student’s parents and some members of the public felt the suspension he was given was too severe for the offense. On Dec. 7, his parents attended a school board meeting asking for a change. They were critical of the district’s administration. The student’s father, Mike Navarra, is the varsity girls volleyball coach for the district.

One week later, Navarra was told his coaching contract would not be renewed. High school coaches are appointed annually and have little job security. They do not need to be fired, their contracts can simply not be renewed.

This dismissal was through an unrelated annual coaching evaluation in which Fox said they were not renewing his contract because of his on-court behavior, including a red card and an incident of shouting at an opposing team’s fans earlier this season.

But Navarra feels the evaluation process was misused in what he believes to be retaliation for speaking out to the school board.

Interim board President Mark Farmer was asked to respond to this claim.

“Certainly the timing of this does have that appearance. There’s no question about that,” Farmer said. “But I don’t think the board views the acts that were taken as retaliatory.”

Navarra has also been banned from entering the school campus, as well as restricted from attending school home and away games. Doing so would be deemed trespassing. This ban was for alleged incidents of yelling at coaches of other teams in football and basketball games, according to the district. Navarra contests these claims, saying they have inaccuracies.

“Think about what it’s like to be restricted to watch your child play in a sport and be threatened with law enforcement,” Navarra said. “I want to watch my son play basketball. I want to coach volleyball.”

At a school board meeting on Dec. 21, a group of around 18 people from the high school community attended to speak their minds, seek answers and ask for a reversal of Navarra’s dismissal.

The group included Navarra himself, SLCSD junior varsity volleyball coach Paul Null, several girls volleyball athletes, their parents and former school board president Aurora White, who resigned from the board in November after a “contentious” executive session in October in which she said she was “dismayed” by the actions of the district.

The SLCSD board meets tonight and this topic is again expected to be discussed.

But Farmer said there’s not much the board can do.

“Sometimes I think that there’s a notion out there that the board of education wields some power that can make things change or go away immediately,” Farmer said. “That’s not always the case.”

He said the board cannot address specific concerns, but can listen to the public.

In the Dec. 21 board meeting, Navarra was stopped several times during his public comment because Farmer said he could not speak about his employment or use names of specific people in a public session. Farmer said he realizes it’s hard for the public to make correct conclusions when the board can’t speak about specifics. He said they are frustrated by this, too.

“I know this is frustrating for everybody in here,” Farmer said. “I can assure you, on our side, we are equally frustrated.”

“The board understands the frustration that can arise when the public is not fully aware of the circumstances leading to decisions relating to personnel or students,” board members wrote in a statement. “There are a multitude of reasons why a board does not discuss personnel or student matters publicly.”

Navarra said he has been in contact with a lawyer and is considering taking the issue to court. He said he reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union, a nonprofit which often provides representation in First Amendment-based cases. He said the ACLU told him because of their limited resources, they would not pursue investigating his case because it involves just one student, not a group.

Farmer said this is a serious allegation. The First Amendment, he said, is likely the most reviewed amendment, but it also has its limits. He said their goal is never to stifle speech. Navarra said the First Amendment is likely the most violated amendment.

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Suspension and the First Amendment

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After a tight Dec. 1 basketball game between the Red Storm and Chateaugay Bulldogs, a team Navarra said is one of best in Section VII, and a game in which SLHS narrowly came away with the win, his son made a post on Snapchat using the n-word. His son is Black, and allowed to say the word, at least socially, his dad said.

Navarra said Black people have taken “ownership” of the offensive word.

It has been tough for his son to grow up as someone in the minority in a mostly white environment. He said his son was called that word when he was attending Petrova Elementary.

His son did not use the word in a malicious way in the post, Navarra said. It was basically to say “you don’t have anything on us.”

His son was initially suspended for 50% of the rest of the season. After he apologized to the Chateaugay superintendent, the suspension was reduced to seven games, with two days of in-school suspension and no team practices. SLHS Athletic Director Forrest Morgan, Principal Josh Dann and Fox are in charge of enforcing the code and determining consequences.

His suspension ends Jan. 5.

Navarra said the administrators were looking out for the district’s well-being, not its students. He felt this was a public shaming and ostracized his son.

He pointed out that national statistics show school suspensions disproportionately impact minority students. He clarified later that he does not feel the administrators’ decision was race-based, but his son’s suspension is part of the statistics now. The goal of punishments should be to change behavior, he said, not continue to “rake them across the coals.”

He felt the administrators were not following policy, but making up punishments however they felt.

At the Dec. 7 board meeting, Navarra’s son apologized to the board for his post.

His mother, Carla, said she felt her family was singled out and treated unfairly, and the administrators’ decisions were hurting her son’s future for a first offense. She said her son is good in school and hasn’t had problems before. He’s a very good basketball player, she said, and has a potential future in the game.

“Don’t play games with him,” she said.

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Coach let go

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Navarra was not brought on for another year of coaching in December after an annual evaluation brought up two on-court issues he has had in the past year — a red card for arguing with a referee and shouting with opposing team fans.

Navarra acknowledges he did get a red card at an Oct. 6 home game against the Plattsburgh Hornets for arguing with a referee. He was issued a yellow card, threw his hands up in protest and was given a red card.

Navarra said he put his hands behind his head to demonstrate that the set was throw because you can’t set a ball from behind your head. He said the situation was resolved amicably.

He did yell at an adult and a student fan at the Lake Placid game, but Navarra said he was trying to break up a potential fight between the two. Lake Placid fans were shouting when his player was serving, he said, and a Saranac Lake fan was confronting them about it.

To him, there is “no doubt” this ending of his contract was related to him speaking at the last meeting. He said his annual evaluations, in the years they happened — up until 2018 and then in 2021 — all had good marks.

The volleyball season is over for now and will resume in the fall, but without Navarra as the team’s coach.

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This is part one of a three-part series.