MUSTANG, Okla.– Mustang Public School District is in need of a new athletic director, after the school board terminated Chuck Bailey on Friday.
The termination was handed down during a hearing, all centered around a letter sent from the former coach to a county judge.
Known for his prowess on the sidelines, Chuck Bailey faced an unfamiliar foe on Friday, his boss at Mustang Public Schools.
“Chuck, during my four years, has been a good employee for this district,” Sean McDaniel, Superintendent of Schools, explained to the school board. “This has nothing to do with Chuck`s character in my mind.”
This meeting had to do with a letter, written back in 2015 to an Oklahoma County Judge, on behalf of Bailey’s nephew, Dustin Graham.
Graham had been convicted years before, accused of secretly recording women in his home bathroom, one of which was 13 years old.
His laundry list of convictions includes manufacturing child pornography.
Bailey, along with a number of other friends and family, wrote letters to the judge in the days before his ‘one year review.’
“I’m here to help him, not convict him,” explained Bailey to the board. “I didn`t ask for an early release, I didn`t say he didn`t commit some crimes, I just said I will be there as a mentor.”
The content of the letter though wasn’t at issue, the problem was the letter head, with Mustang’s logo proudly displayed.
“Nowhere in the letter does it say anything about the school district supporting this,” said McDaniel. “Yet there it was on Mustang Public School`s letter head.”
When the Supt. confronted the AD over the letter, their stories then split. Superintendent McDaniel says he was surprised at a lack of an apology, while Bailey claims he never really got the chance.
“He didn`t give me an opportunity to remorse,” said Bailey. “He was more attacking.”
“I never could get him, in my mind, to see the concern,” said McDaniel.
The defense compared this letter, to hundreds of similar letters sent by Bailey over the years to help former athletes in need.
They claimed Bailey was protected by the first amendment, with Bailey explaining the letter head is simply how he identifies.
“I`m Chuck Bailey, the Athletic Director at Mustang Public Schools,” he said. “Whether I`m in Walmart, if I`m in church, that`s who I am, and that`s who I was that day.”
The board saw otherwise, firing Bailey after nearly eight years with the district.
Superintendent McDaniels tells NewsChannel 4, he’s not yet sure who will be replacing Bailey for the 2016 school year.
Bailey’s attorney said they will be pursuing legal action against the district.
