Laura Tate/Editor
Two former Malibu High School coaches, upset and angered by recent news articles about their dismissal from the cheerleading team, have contacted The Malibu Times, firing off letters, threatening lawsuits, and making demands for apologies.
The articles that ran in The Malibu Times last week and in the Surfside News in early December, reported that Ceillia Whiteford and Barbara Mills, both Malibu residents, were dismissed as coaches of the MHS team because of allegedly permitting mistreatment of a special needs student on the cheerleading squad. The student is legally blind and deaf.
In an earlier interview, Whiteford said that she and Mills were told by Malibu High Principal Mike Matthews that they were being dismissed because of several incidents where the special needs student was verbally abused by other squad members. Matthews reportedly said that the dismissal was not based on one incident, but a series of events dating back to a year ago. It was also reported that the Junior Varsity Squad quit the cheerleading team a year ago because of problems with the coaches.
Both Mills and Whiteford, in recent telephone interviews, vehemently deny the allegations. Whiteford, Mills, and Whiteford’s husband, David Schwerdtmann, all told the Times that they believe the two were fired because of political reasons.
“I think it’s political,” said Mills. “I think the parent [of the special needs student] was very upset. The program was becoming very demanding. I think she went to the district and demanded an interpreter. As Matthews put it, he had to do something. I think he knew that by getting rid of the coaches he got rid of the program.”
Schwerdtmann said he believes that the cost of providing interpreters for the student would have been too expensive, therefore, Matthews solved the problem by firing the coaches, therefore dismantling the team.
Asked how he came to this conclusion, Schwerdtmann said, “If you put all this stuff together that’s going on in this situation, that’s the conclusion.”
Mills wrote that she and Whiteford have met with Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Neil Schmidt and the district advisory committee about their dismissal.
Matthews, in earlier news reports, said he was legally restricted from commenting on the matter. Schmidt released a statement saying he could not comment because it was a personnel matter. It has been reported that a lawsuit has been filed against the school district in connection with the special needs student.
Whiteford said that a week before they were fired, Matthews had told her that students had been coming into his office, saying that some of the girls were being brutal to the special needs student.
“It is absolutely ridiculous that we would allow this treatment,” said Mills. “As a parent, coach and an advisor, I don’t like the implication.”
Mills wrote in a letter to the Times that when she and Whiteford took the special needs student onto the squad, they did so “out of kindness” and “as a charitable act.”
“There were never any negative comments made by Ceillia and I, or any other cheerleader, about [her],” wrote Mills.
“I did not know what they were talking about,” said Whiteford, in a telephone interview. “I had not seen anything happen.”
Whiteford later added that she did remember an incident where another cheerleader had yelled at the special needs student. Whiteford said the incident occurred at a football game in September, a month and a half prior to her dismissal by Matthews. She said she was not present when the incident occurred, but was informed of it by a special education teacher.
Both Mills and Whiteford said they believe the article in the Times was biased because the reporter’s sister was on the JV team that quit last year. Mills also wrote in a letter to the Times that she believes the editor handling the article favors the reporter and probably made the decision to publish the “one-sided smear” in the Times. (See Opinion, page 4.)
“What upsets me is that this girl writes a letter about the whole thing and basically bashes us,” Mills. “She is the sister of a team member, I do feel that this has an influence on her.”
Mills wrote a letter and left it on the doorstep of the reporter, last Friday, in which she said: “Your defamatory article contained many untrue statements that were known by you to be untrue and were clearly meant to defame me in the eyes of the Malibu community. You succeeded in your mission.”
Mills also demanded a retraction and an apology in writing through the Times and the News and threatened to sue for defamation of character. She also requested that she be allowed to respond with her own “unfiltered article.”
As far as reasons why the JV squad quit, both Mills and Whiteford said they do not know why they did.
Several JV team members in a collective interview said they quit because of “poor leadership.” The girls had quit the cheerleading squad after a trip to Hawaii where the entire squad competed against other teams.
Whiteford said that when the group returned from Hawaii, she and Mills had a meeting with Matthews to go over budgeting items. She said Brian Banducci, athletics director for Malibu High, was present. She said she was told that it was reported that she and Mills had acted inappropriately during the trip to Hawaii. However, Whiteford said it was the JV girls who were out of hand. She said the girls have been a disciplinary problem, not wanting to follow rules. According to Whiteford, several of the JV girls had “disappeared” one morning, not informing the coaches of their whereabouts. They had gone to breakfast, she said.
However, she said it was normal “teenager” behavior that occurred, and did not mention the girls’ behavior to Matthews.
Mills concurred with Whiteford about the girls’ behavior during the trip.
After the meeting with Matthews and Banducci, Whiteford said she came out with a list of rules for the girls to follow. It was after this that the girls quit the team, giving no reason, said Whiteford.
“The worst part of it, is that I loved these girls,” she said. “They’re 14, what they did was no different than what any girl had done in the three years I’ve been coaching.”
“It was a shock to us, after all the fundraising, that all the girls said they were quitting,” said Mills. (Mills and Whiteford said they conducted fundraisers to enable the JV squad to accompany the Varsity squad on the Hawaii trip.)
Mills, Whiteford and Schwerdtmann said several of the girls on the remaining squad went before the Sports and Physical Education District Advisory Committee last week to express their dissappointment that they were left midseason without a coach.
Mills’ husband, John Mills, said: “The bottom line is, the fact that, for whatever reason, he [Matthews] summarily dismissed the coaches for the team who worked together for four years … when they were dismissed there were no backup coaches. The girls accomplished a lot of positive stuff that’s getting dragged through the mud. I think the girls were discriminated against.”
“There are five senior on that squad,” said Schwerdtmann. “They’ll never get their time back.”
