By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT – The embattled former freshman coach of the Staples Soccer team told the school board on Friday that the schools’ superintendent secretly recorded him during a private meeting held in hopes of resolving the issue.
Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice, in response, acknowledged the recording, but said it was done to avoid inaccurate statements about the meeting.
Chris O’Dell, one of three soccer coaches let go by the school district in the school year that just ended, is to have an appeal of his dismissal heard before the board in July.
During the public comment portion of a meeting held over Zoom, O’Dell told the board that the date selected for the hearing, July 23, conflicts with a family vacation and that attempts to get it changed have failed.
“I was recently told that if I didn’t agree to a July 23rd date for my hearing, then I would forfeit the right to have any hearing.” O’Dell said.
O’Dell said he was ready, and “desperate” for the hearing when it was originally scheduled for June 2. He was told the session could last no more than 3 hours. He agreed.
The June 2 hearing was postponed anyway.
O’Dell said his meeting with Scarice occurred months after it was requested, ironically on June 2.
Before that meeting with Scarice, O’Dell said the board and superintendent received an email about allegations against him made six years prior that included a video of him yelling at his team prior to a game.
“A game which we won and many of those players still refer to as their favorite game that season,” O’Dell said. “It is a one in a billion coincidence, or maybe a coordinated hit job, that these allegations from 2019 had not come in at any point during the last eight months of this nonsense since our suspension,” O’Dell told the board.
O’Dell said he was unsuccessful in reaching a settlement with Scarice during the private session.
He said he learned later that Scarice had recorded the exchange without his knowledge or consent.
“Eventually (he) admitted it,” Scarice said as his two minute time limit to speak was running out.
“I love this town, this school and this sports program and you won’t be able to make me stop,” O’Dell said. “I will not be bullied, embarrassed or blackmailed into not calling out this absolutely abhorrent behavior. Where are we when the superintendent is secretly recording conversations he has with a longstanding contributing member of the community such as myself?”
O’Dell said he feels as if the district is being run like an organized crime family out to eliminate problems as they occur.
A hearing held on May 12 for former coach Russell Oost-Lievense lasted nearly 14 hours, with a majority of the board siding with the administration. The vote was 5-1 with Board Member Robert Harrington voting no and Kevin Christie recusing himself from the proceeding.
All three coaches were suspended and their contracts not renewed after VJ Sarullo, the district’s athletic director, learned of interactions between a player and one of the coaches during a soccer retreat held before school started in August.
Scarice said the private meeting with O’Dell on June 2 was to share perspectives, concerns and his reasons on why a mediated settlement would be difficult for him to accept. No agreement was reached, he said.
Scarice said public discussion on the issue has included inaccurate and misleading information.
“Given that the meeting was just the two of us, I determined it was important to maintain an accurate record of this discussion by recording it so that content and tone could not be mischaracterized,” Scarice said later in an email. “As permitted by law, I recorded the meeting for future reference and did not share it publicly, promptly providing a copy when requested by Mr. O’Dell.”
Linda Conner Lambeck
Linda Conner Lambeck covers education for Westport Journal. She was a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications. She has covered education throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties. She is a proud member of the Education Writers Association.
I can’t help but think about the “NO KINGS” protest held in Westport on the bridge last week.
All the posters, and signs..
“Our country, our voice”
How fitting they should in fact have said..
“Our town, our voice.
Forget about Washington DC !
We need to get our town in order first.
We, in Westport, our town is administered by someone who believes or behaves like they are a king.
Our boards appear to operate in the same way. It’s the trickle down effect. It’s almost a given.
Once you elect these people they do not listen. They care less what you feel. Or what your values are or why they were elected. They don’t care about integrity.
This is our hugest hurdle.
The manner in which these coaches were treated is in my opinion, unforgivable.
These decisions have changed their lives.
Even if those decisions are “fixed” or changed,or reversed, there is an inevitable PTSD type ramification, which effects the coaches and the kids.
It is just so beyond unacceptable.
Will you all remember this in November ? Will you all vote accordingly ?
Will you all take the time to say no, to this MAFIA and AUTHORITARIAN, style of rule in our town.
We can be the change, and I hope it’s not too late for these coaches. And I hope it’s not too late for us.
But if we do not stand up to authoritarian rule, our town will be scarred for life.
Of that there is ZERO doubt.
Integrity has left the room. And we need her back, and fast.
Does the law allow an individual to record a conversation without notifying in advance the person he or she is recording?
Most likely not. But they don’t care !
The law in Westport is the authoritarian who tells it to be so !
It’s the scummy pos who decides this is how it is.
Law ?
What law ? In Westport !
I’ll be voting in November.
Michael
Doesn’t appear to be illegal to record a live in-person conversation.
But to do so covertly like this is ethically repulsive and conduct unbecoming for a leader of our children’s education system.
Yes I agree. Thank you Toni.
I was wrong ! Boy’s Soccer is the tail that wags the dog at Staples and in Westport. Maybe the Superintendent did not like the team’s record these past few years or he did not like these coaches but recording a conversation without asking for consent is more than just iffy !
I believe that CT has a two person consent law meaning that recording a private two person conversation requires consent… and consent requires notification of the recording occurring.
Clearly Scarice is trying to justify this egregious (and probably illegal) strategy to entrap this coach.
Knowing that the conversation is being secretly recorded allowed Scarice to be certain to control his emotions, chose his words carefully and judiciously, while baiting Mr. O’Dell into an “”emotional” reaction or statement that could later be used against him.
Dirty. Unethical. Probably illegal.
But given his prior demeanor, attitude, and comments, not all that surprising. He acts as if he’s untouchable.
If we could only vote Mr. Scarice out of office that might help the coaches. However, I’m not sure of this but I think only the Board of Education can remove him and they have already come out in support of Scarice.