Mitch Stein: Journey of Justice Ends For Fired Coach

Mitch Stein, a fired water polo coach from Charter Oak High School, recently revealed he agreed to settle his lawsuit with the Charter Oak Unified School District in a wrongful termination suit.

The June 2013 settlement awarded Stein $50,000 from the district which, among other provisions, must also implement five years worth of diversity training for district faculty, staff, administrators and walk-on coaches.

Stein alleged the district fired him in Aug. 2011 because he is gay. Several photos surfaced in an anonymous letter sent to the district by an angry parent. One such photo showed Stein in street clothes posing with drag queens. Another photo showed him holding a corn dog to his mouth.

Stein also alleged the district had created a hostile work environment for gays, lesbians and transgendered students.

After spending two years mired in the lawsuit, countless depositions and putting his private life on public display, Stein is more than happy to put the lawsuit behind him.

"Things have just been … different. It's a lot less stress. I had put on a lot of weight. I was really unhappy," Stein said.

Stein said the lawsuit was never about money. What he wanted more than anything was to get the district to change the way it treats people and to get his coaching job back. Stein also wanted the lawsuit to go to trial to expose what he said are years of bad decision-making on the part of officials.

At least one deposition revealed a lack of facilities to accommodate transgendered students and the gender to which they identify with.

A former student, living as a male but born female, had reportedly been forced to use the girls locker room. The student reportedly had to change schools, Stein said.

"There are no concessions being made for these kids. These things keep happening and nothing changes. There needs to be a change. I need to show them that they can't keep doing this," Stein said.

The law firm representing Stein, the Brad Kane Law Firm, called every school district within a 15-mile radius of Charter Oak and discovered at that time that all the districts had board policies addressing sexual orientation--except for Charter Oak, Stein said.

In a previous version of the Charter Oak nondiscrimination police, BP 0410, there was no mention of a policy regarding sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression. That verbiage has since been approved and added to the board policy in May 2012.

However, when asked in their depositions about plans to implement, or enforce the board policies, Superintendent Mike Hendricks, former Superintendent of Human Resources Terry Stanfill and Charter Oak High School Principal Kathleen Wiard reportedly had no responses, Stein said.

Stein spoke with a union representative who once attempted to initiate diversity training at the school many years ago, only to be turned down. That training was the STAND program.

Socially Together and Naturally Diverse, or STAND, is a program created in 1990. STAND attempts to bring students together to celebrate their diverse backgrounds while combating racism, prejudice and bullying.

The STAND program is now being used as the diversity training at Charter Oak. Stein was called by some of the employees undergoing training and said it reportedly began about four weeks ago, Stein said.

One of the most surprising aspects of the trail came from the deposition of Joe Maddox.

Maddox, a Claremont Police detective, was accused in the lawsuit of being the parent who sent the anonymous letter containing Stein's photos to Kathleen Wiard after his son and two other students received punishment for not providing proof of their physical exam completion.

After Stein's story was featured in national media, a series of anonymous letters and emails were sent to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Superintendent Mike Hendricks, along with comments left on Glendora Patch's message board. The emails and letters stated Stein deserved to be fired, some had libelous claims about coach Howard Hyde. The comments on Glendora Patch attempted to "out" Coach Hyde.

In an interview with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Maddox denied writing the letters, emails and comments.

In his deposition, however, Maddox admitted to authoring everything, Stein said, adding Maddox regretted to his actions that led to Stein's firing.

Despite the stresses of the trial, Stein and his partner Hugo Horta opened a coffee shop in Claremont, The Spot, in January 2013. Stein teaches a juice class there.

Stein hasn't decided yet what to do with what remains of his $50,000 settlement money. He is contemplating starting a scholarship program with the high school's Gay Straight Alliance club, or the water polo teams.

School officials during the trial could not agree to let Stein back on the pool deck as a coach. He can remain, however, as a parent, Stein said.

Stein still finds it frustrating that it took a lengthy, expensive lawsuit to get the district to change.

"We just wanted to sit down and have a conversation with the board members. If the board members would have agreed to sit down with a mediator from the very beginning, we couldn't have come up with this settlement on our own and saved two years of legal fees on both sides?

"In no deposition could they even point to a rule I broke. Two years, 15 depositions, two different law firms, to defend what? What were they defending? That's what I want the community to ask them," Stein said.

This story corrects an earlier version that stated the lawsuit went to trial. Jury selection took place, but the settlement was reached before the lawsuit went to trial.