Hayfield Secondary School has withdrawn its football team from playoff contention, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid announced tonight (Monday).
According to Reid, the decision was made by Hayfield principal Darin Thompson as questions continue to mount about the recruiting practices used by head coach Darryl Overton and his staff and how FCPS has responded to the allegations.
The Hayfield Eagles were scheduled to play Fairfax High School tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7 p.m. on their home turf in Franconia after crushing rival Edison High School 75-7 last Thursday (Nov. 21) in their first game since the Virginia High School League hit the team with a two-year postseason ban.
The VHSL recommended the ban after an investigation allegedly found violations of rules that prohibit school staff from exercising “undue influence” to encourage student transfers for activities. However, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge granted an injunction on Nov. 15 allowing Hayfield to play while a lawsuit filed by parents plays out.
Hayfield’s withdrawal from the state tournament follows the surfacing of text messages suggesting that Hayfield Director of Student Activities Monty Fritts was aware that head coach Darryl Overton would recruit students from other schools for the Hawks.
First reported by the Fairfax County Times, the texts came to the attention of FCPS leaders during a meeting that Reid held with several football coaches on Nov. 19 after they threatened to forfeit their playoff games if Hayfield was allowed to participate, according to an FCPS spokesperson.
The messages were then shared with the FCPS human resources department and both internal and external legal counsel for review, the spokesperson said in a statement earlier today. The school system also began interviewing staff members about the “new developments.”
“FCPS can only act on the information that it has, and these messages brought new concerns to the initial investigation,” Reid said in her update tonight. “Human resources staff and internal and external counsel reviewed this new evidence, investigated further, and finally concluded that they provided evidence of potential impropriety.”
Reid has directed FCPS Athletics and Student Activities Executive Director Tom Horn to work with VHSL on “any and all appropriate next steps.”
In the Jan. 11 text exchange, a person identified by the Fairfax Times as Fritts stated that Hayfield principal Darin Thompson “really wants Overton” as their new head football coach, according to screenshots.
When the other person said Overton will “get kids from other schools to play for yall” but questioned whether he could “get away with” that at FCPS, Fritts responded that “nothing can happen” if the students are registered as homeless, presumably to get around requirements that they live in the school’s boundaries.
Overton was named Hayfield’s new head football coach in February after leading Freedom High School in Woodbridge to two consecutive state championships. Then, in April, Hayfield got 31 football player transfers from other schools in the D.C. region, including 14 students from Freedom High School.
FCPS enlisted attorney Cynthia Hudson in June to conduct an internal investigation of allegations that Overton and his coaching staff had improperly recruited students as well as claims of bullying, missing funds and use of school property for personal gain. The review, which included interviews and visits to students’ homes, found no wrongdoing, Reid said at a town hall meeting in August.
School board members join call for ‘comprehensive’ investigation
However, the divergent findings of the VHSL and the new messages apparently implicating Hayfield’s athletic director in the controversy have left many community members frustrated — including at least three school board members, who issued a joint statement today (Monday) calling for a comprehensive, independent investigation.
“By all accounts, the number and timing of the transfers was unusual and unprecedented,” Fairfax County School Board members Mateo Dunne (Mount Vernon District), Ricardy Anderson (Mason) and Ryan McElveen (At-Large) said in their statement. “In our opinion, FCPS failed to investigate the student transfers in a timely manner.”
In addition to looking at the recruitment, eligibility and transfers of football players to Hayfield, the investigation should examine reported forced reassignments of FCPS employees, alleged cyberbullying and social media policy violations, and FCPS leaders’ handling of the issue since February, including an internal investigation conducted from June to August, the school board members said.
The investigation should be conducted by an outside law firm with no established connection to FCPS or Reid, and it should report directly to the school board’s auditor general, the school board members said, noting that they were speaking for themselves, not the school board as a whole.
From the statement:
All student-athletes deserve the opportunity to compete on a level playing field in accordance with established rules that are consistently and fairly enforced. In our opinion, our student athletes were denied that opportunity by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and the Virginia High School League (VHSL) this season. We believe that FCPS failed to protect its student athletes and maintain the integrity of its athletic program. This situation has tarnished the reputation of FCPS and disrupted the lives of countless students, families/caregivers, and community members.
In our opinion, FCPS has not accepted full responsibility for its actions and errors, and has failed to commit to a course of action that will remedy current challenges and prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. It is essential that a new direction be established for the school system.
Dunne, Anderson and McElveen had previously proposed that FCPS allow an independent investigation into Hayfield’s football program at a school board meeting on Aug. 29, but the move was voted down by all of their colleagues, except At-Large Representative Ilryong Moon, who was absent at the time of the vote.
Scandal was avoidable, school board member says
In a Nov. 20 letter to the community, Reid announced plans for an independent review of FCPS policies related to student-athlete transfers and eligibility. The external review and feedback from a working group of coaches, principals and other staff scheduled to start meeting on Dec. 19 will inform an internal review to update FCPS policies, she added in an update yesterday (Sunday).
Fairfax County School Board Chair Karl Frisch largely echoed Reid’s statement in a Nov. 20 message to the Fairfax City School Board, which sent a letter to its county counterparts on Nov. 17 calling for “a comprehensive, unbiased investigation into this matter.”
“We understand and share the frustration caused by the VHSL’s confusing actions, which have disrupted the football postseason for many schools,” Frisch said in his response. “VHSL’s last-minute changes to playoff brackets, the addition and removal of teams, and the rescheduling of games have caused significant challenges for coaches, student-athletes, and communities. These actions do not reflect the high standards that our students, staff, and families deserve.”
Frisch and the VHSL didn’t respond to requests for comment from FFXnow by press time.
While he believes the VHSL “has some blame to share,” particularly regarding the timing of its ruling on the postseason ban, Dunne argues that FCPS should be the primary target of scrutiny.
Dunne says he’s heard from “hundreds and hundreds of constituents” upset by the controversy, and booster clubs for Fairfax, Lake Braddock, Robinson and South County high schools joined the call for an independent investigation.
“The community outrage is palpable and needs to be addressed, and the very limited actions that were announced by FCPS do not address the expectations and the outrage,” he told FFXnow. “… The majority of the blame lies with the school board and the superintendent, who have failed to act … for 11 months to remedy this situation. It was entirely avoidable, entirely preventable, and yet, we have allowed a train wreck to occur that never should have happened.”
Questions that still need to be answered include why FCPS waited until June to launch an investigation and why it decided to conduct that review in-house rather than retaining an outside law firm with more investigative resources, Dunne says.
In their statement, he, Anderson and McElveen also said they’ve gotten reports of FCPS employees being disciplined for sharing their views on the controversy, of the school system restricting the activities of both professional and student journalists, and of racist comments being directed at student-athletes and their families on social media.
“We wholeheartedly condemn these vile remarks,” they said. “Such comments are reprehensible and hurtful, and they contradict the core values of the school division. Hate has no home in our community. We will not tolerate hate in any form.”
They said they will advocate for a number of policy changes, including one to govern the hiring, removal and training of coaches, the creation of a code of ethics for FCPS leaders and school administrators, and the establishment of a “dissent channel” and protections for whistleblowers.
Dunne says the controversy around Hayfield has been “unfortunate on many levels,” including the fact that it has now overshadowed the good work that FCPS has done under Reid, whose contract was extended by the school board on Nov. 14.
Overall, Reid has been a “strong leader” who has helped strengthen the school system’s academic programs, including by implementing a new “Science of Reading” literacy curriculum and guiding FCPS’ recovery from learning losses during the pandemic, Dunne says.
FCPS is also working on a systemwide review of school boundaries and revisions to its grading policies and planning for a facility conditions review.
“There’s so much positive news that I would prefer to be speaking about with the public, but instead, I’m compelled to speak about this Hayfield football situation,” Dunne said. “… I don’t understand why, when she is doing such a great job on so many fronts, that this scandal, seems to be out of control. And so, you know, we have to act, not because she’s not the right leader, but just because this one thing, she and the school board both have gotten wrong so far, and we need to get it right.”
