Lake Oswego Coach Fired (for doing the right thing) - writing letters to state officials advocating for change to laws pertaining to transgender athletes

I disagree. I do not think women are inherently smarter than men. I do not think women alone should decide whether men compete with them. I don’t believe that men should be silenced. Both sexes are equally capable, and we both need each other

Yes. He is a good coach. He is not perfect but he does know sprinting! Though Mia was injured all of her Senior year, so we will never know how good her HS PRs could have been...

He was also the coach of Ryan Bailey, one of America's fastest ever 100m runners. Ryan was a non-runner until Parks discovered him at the school where he was teaching and helped him make it all the way to the Olympics.

bleacherreport.com

US Olympic Track Trials: New Olympian Ryan Bailey Won't Be a Nobody for Long

Red Shannon

Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Ryan Bailey are going to the London Olympic Games. As the nation—and much of the world—watched last Sunday's 100-meter finals at the US Track ...

Open link

Sure, I don't disagree. Men are great at certain things. But men also tend to think they are great at everything. For example, even though my post was 100% anodyne, some posters here think they should reply to it and correct me...

But seriously, when it comes to things that directly impact women first and foremost, I think men should let them lead the conversation. I am not saying we are "silenced" but it wouldn't hurt to have ratio of men to women reversed on this issue. As it is, I bet 95% of the posters on this thread are men. I would like to hear from all the Letsrun women...

If all he said was it's not fair if you're in the competition, then he was right and that's by no means anything approaching harassment or exclusion.

Bush Park, let it go. How many posts so far? We get it, you don't like the guy. Move on.

let's see here.

first off, if you're on a series of 1 year deals, and you are allowed to serve out this year, you aren't necessarily owed next year. you're not fired unless they end it early and send you out the door with a box. you're not renewed. which an OR school can probably do for cause or even without cause if by a deadline as i understand it. so which was it?

second, the article says he got crossways with a prominent portland AD who kept notes and passed them back to lake oswego.

third, the article says the portland AD said issues extended beyond the letter to confronting the athlete and riling fans up against her at state.

fourth, his school may have some sort of policy where letters like this need to be signed off on by the principal or AD. this isn't just joe public making free speech, it could be understood as representing the school. but it sounds like their own school has trans athletes and his position may not be the school's position. if i don't follow company policy and advocate my personal beliefs i too could get crossways with my boss. what does lake oswego think of such things?

fifth, did you folks miss the part where parks said, "I had 2 transgender athletes on my team this spring?" setting aside the hypocrisy problem -- as i have said, this seems to be more about the ones who win than about purity -- i could see where administration might view him as no longer the appropriate steward for a team composed that way.

sixth, if you line up the dates -- the letter goes out before state, not after. that reads different. you then make a scene at state.

last, i remember someone using the term "trajectory" on a let's run thread to argue about the runner's theorized potential. i took "trajectory" to be a rhetorical means of anticipating times the runner had not actually run yet. so someone who has only run 23-high can be "on trajectory" to do worse. since you can't say she has broken mia's records, you can scare people that she might.

i know i proposed an open-type class.

a lot of the seeming content of parks' letter sounds like someone who read that thread or lines up with it.

I don’t believe that sexual or racial identity, which are characteristics that are completely unchangeable, should play any role at all in whether someone is qualified to speak on an issue. I have no problem with a woman discussing pornography addiction, or testicular cancer, or whatever. It is dangerous and illogical for men to “sit down” on an issue solely because they are “not women” and might cause offense. It assumes that men have nothing useful to say, not because of the content of their message, but because they are not women.

I think men and women are equally flawed, and there is zero evidence that women have inherently superior character to men. I think it is self evident nonsense to say, “Men think they’re good at everything” as if women possess some innate righteousness that eludes men.

RichardRider, you read like you are around 18 years old. Just idiotic.

LOHS school record 4x100 was set the year BEFORE Parks was hired.

LOHS girls won state championship the year BEFORE Parks was hired.

Mia ran year round all in junior high and for two years in high school with no injuries BEFORE Parks was hired.

I believe Coach Parks was fired back in the late 90's to early 2000's from McKay High School for theft of computers from the Salem-Keizer school district. He certainly has the same name and is the right age.....just sayin'