"Help, A monster is after our small town pee wee football league!"

What is the name of your state? New York
I'll try to keep a very long story short. I am a board member for this football league. A father "Pete", is an ex-board member/ex-coach. His child has played on our league for 3 years. Pete willfully resigned on several "heated" occassions last season. When Pete approached the board this year and asked to be allowed back, we voted him out (mostly because he resigned last year).
Pete's son is "legally blind". For 2 years his son played on the smallest division, children cannot weigh more than 90 lbs. This year his son is moved up to the middle division (max weight 120lbs). His son can only play at center position (he is the kid that gives the ball to the quarterback). In the beginning of this season, the coaches were a bit concerned about this boys safety (limited upper body strength and inability to defend an inevitable tackle). They brought their concern to the board. The board took this to the father. The father, rather than discuss his childs safety and ways to resolve our concerns, decided to bring up the past and proceed to yell profanity and make verbal death threats toward an individual board member and the entire board and league. He threatened to sue us if anything happened to his child. Since this conversation did not accomplish what we had set out to do (protect his child), the board decided to have the coaches work with this child to teach him defense techniques and build his upper body strength. We thought this was working.
Last weekend, for unknown reasons, Pete verbally attacked one of his childs coaches. This is a direct violation of our Code of Conduct, and since he is an ex member, he is aware of this. Pete yelled profanity loudly, and made a verbal attack towards the coaches daughter (an innocent bystander).
Monday am we received a phone call from Pete, requesting copies of all paperwork that he had signed at sign-ups and for a copy of our by-laws.
The father signed: a form stating he was aware of any/all personal injury risks, that he had read and would comply with the Code of Conduct, and that he would not sue us in the event of personal injury to his child.
While it has not been stated thus far...we believe that Pete feels we have discriminated against his son by not allowing him to play "enough" to please dad. Our minimum play rule is 8 plays per game. The child has played minimum play for all games (more for some of the games).
What now? Does he have a case? What should we do to prepare ourselves?
We are a non-for profit organization...all of our funds come from booster club fund raisers. Attorney fees would drain us. HELP...can we save our kids football league. How can we stop this man from manipulating us? Restraining order?

Get a restraining order against daddy and re-think allowing his son to continue unless there are other children with such handicaps who participate.

There are no other children with such handicaps this year. Does he have a case to sue us...or is he just "manipulating" us?

Of course he does. In his own mind. But since we don't know what is contained in all of the 'agreements' that he signed, there's no way anyone can tell you if he will prevail or not.

Your FIRST consideration is for the parents and children who are being affected by this jerk. Get the restraining order.

Then deal with his son.

How do we "deal with his son" without looking like we are discriminating against him. I agree that we must protect parents and children from him and that is our first priority but, wouldn't kicking his son out look like discrimination? The child is not guilty of anything and we did not want to punish him for having a "looser" for a father.

Football27 said:

How do we "deal with his son" without looking like we are discriminating against him. I agree that we must protect parents and children from him and that is our first priority but, wouldn't kicking his son out look like discrimination? The child is not guilty of anything and we did not want to punish him for having a "looser" for a father.

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That is NOT what I said. Where did I say you need to kick the child out? But until you resolve the issue with the father you cannot deal with the special needs of the child.

And if the father sues you, the child will become an issue. THAT is what I meant.

"re-think allowing his son to continue"!! So I may have changed the wording a bit, but I believe this comment means that same thing as removing the child from play. Which is not what we want to do. The restraining order is what I wanted to do all along but a police officer told us since he never "hit" anyone, we would probably not be successful. However, we will attempt to get a restraining order, since there are few other options.

Listen, you may WANT to keep his son in the program. But in all reality I can see many problems with the father and keeping his son as a participant. You can't save the world. And you DO owe all the other children and their parents some level of safety and pleasure.

Unfortunately, if the son is being harmed by you not allowing him to continue on the actions of his father, there's nothing that can be done.

You can't save the world. You need to protect the parents, coaches and other children FIRST!

God, if only I could save the world. While attractive, the tasks seems exasperating. I think I'll start small and focus my energy on "saving our league" for 150 kids/parents who love the game.

Thanks for the advice. I'll persue the restraining order suggestion. I believe that may be a very good first step.

Football27 said:

God, if only I could save the world. While attractive, the tasks seems exasperating. I think I'll start small and focus my energy on "saving our league" for 150 kids/parents who love the game.

Thanks for the advice. I'll persue the restraining order suggestion. I believe that may be a very good first step.

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Well I'll be damn. You listened.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Oooo, I missed those posts. Now I must go digging!!!

Don't bother Liz. He deleted each and every one of them when he didn't get the answer he wanted.

But I have a copy and I'll keep it until it's needed.

Besides, I've wasted enough time on this sexual preditor.

Football,

We had a similar problem in my local Youth Football league. Fortunately, as a private organization you have a lot of rights. And with the comments and threats he has made, it would seem you have every right to ban him from practices and games. If he fails to comply, then withdraw his child. It's harsh, but permissable.

Whatever you do, follow the guidelines and rules as written. This should keep you and the organization out of hot water.

And the R/O is a good idea, too.

- Carl

Wow, jerkedaround, you're a big fan of copying and pasting, aren't you?

Just to chime in here on the information the one officer gave about the restraining order, physical attack is not the only reason such orders are given. The father has been harassing people at the games, as well as the members of the board. The consistent acts of harassment, as well as the death threats made in front of witnesses, should be enough to get a restraining order.