Simi Valley Board Snubs Proposal to Punish 3 at Royal

Threatening legal action, the Simi Valley school board has rejected punitive recommendations against the Royal High athletic department, setting up a battle that raises fundamental questions about the scope of Southern Section authority over member schools.

On Tuesday, the Board of Trustees of the Simi Valley Unified School District issued a five-point response to Southern Section recommendations that Royal relieve three administrators of interscholastic athletic duties. The recommendations came after the school’s championship soccer team was ruled in violation of Southern Section bylaws for using a player who participated with a Junior Olympic team during the season.

In rejecting the recommendations, the school district claimed that the Southern Section exceeded its legal bounds by attempting to dictate district personnel decisions. The Southern Section’s executive committee also recommended two-year’s probation for Royal’s athletic department but allowed the Highlanders to keep the 4-A Division soccer title they won March 4 with a 1-0 victory over Newbury Park.

“Certainly, they have every right to put us on probation and could sanction us in other ways,” said John Duncan, the district’s superintendent. “But they are totally out of their purview when they begin to dictate how we handle personnel, saying who we should hire and fire. That is the legal right of the board. They should give us recommendations that are within their rights.”

Duncan also said it is the board’s intention to seek litigation if the Southern Section moves to strip Royal of its title.

The executive committee will not meet until next week, according to Southern Section Commissioner Stan Thomas, who declined to speculate on what action the panel might take. But he considered the school district’s rejection a serious breach for a member school.

“I did my very best to come up with something that was palatable to both sides, but apparently that’s not good enough,” he said. “If you want to be a Southern Section member you have to accept the ruling of the executive committee. If not, maybe you want to play intramurals.”

The rejection is the second contravention of Southern Section authority in a month. The section ordered the Muir boys’ basketball team out of the playoffs for use of an ineligible player, but a group of Muir parents won a restraining order from a federal judge, who reinstated Muir for postseason competition. Muir lost in the second round, and the case was dismissed without going to trial.

Thomas finds the trend toward litigation disturbing.

“We are under siege,” he said. “Today, attorneys and judges are making decisions that administrators and principals should be making. Schools seem willing to forget they have accepted our system and go directly to the courts.”

Duncan insists his district respects Southern Section authority but merely rejects the severity of the punishment. In the five-point response, the district admits that procedural mistakes were made, rejects the Southern Section’s recommendations, vows to reject attempts to influence district personnel decisions, requests more “reasonable” sanctions, and resolves to seek litigation if the Southern Section attempts to strip the team of its title.

“We don’t want to offend the CIF, but the punishment far exceeded the crime,” Duncan said. “This is not a violation that can be compared to collusion or like trying to hide the grades of a kid.”

The controversy centers on Cam Rast’s trip to the Soviet Union with the Junior Olympic team in December. Rast is a senior who was voted the Marmonte League’s defensive player of the year. Ironically, he was unavailable for comment Wednesday--he was playing for the national team in Mexico.

Rast also traveled to Guatemala in February and received Southern Section approval for the trip. The Southern Section did not learn of Rast’s first trip until after the championship game. Royal administrators cleared Rast for the Soviet trip without gaining Southern Section approval, a violation that both sides call a procedural matter.

Under the Southern Section recommendations, then-interim Principal Marge Blackburn, activities director Jim Cox and Athletic Director Glenn Lipman would be permanently relieved of their interscholastic athletics duties.

Principal Dave Jackson, who started at Royal on Feb. 1, was surprised by the severity of the recommendations.

“I haven’t seen anything like this before,” he said. “Nobody at Royal did anything on purpose to break the rules. We messed up a procedure. We didn’t do anything sneaky. A great kid wanted to play for his high school and play for his country.

“I hope the Southern Section would have enough confidence in its member schools to take care of this. It is an internal problem and we will take care of it.”

Duncan claims the district already has followed some of the recommendations. Blackburn is now an assistant principal removed from the athletic department and Jackson will assume Cox’s duties in athletic administration. “We definitely have taken corrective measures,” Duncan said.

Lipman remains as athletic director but Jackson said his position will be reviewed. When asked whether Lipman had offered his resignation, Jackson directed questions toward Lipman, who declined comment.

“As of this moment Glenn is still our athletic director,” Jackson said. “I’ll see how things smoke out and if I think I have to do something with Glenn, then I will take action, but I won’t have it slammed down my throat. No one is going to tell me how to handle my teachers or administrators except the Simi Valley board.”

Said Duncan: “Because we disagree with their recommendations doesn’t mean we might not do personnel actions very similar to their recommendations, but that’s our choice.”

That attitude is what most concerns Thomas, who said, “This raises fundamental questions about where we are going. Are we letting the courts rule us? Is that what the principals want?”

Although both sides claim they are open to negotiation, each seems prepared for a court fight. Pro-soccer sentiment ran high at Tuesday’s board meeting at which Coach Peter Schraml made an emotional address in defense of his team and the Royal administration.

“We were willing to risk our championship if we could help the administrators of our school,” he said Wednesday. “We did make a mistake and should have turned in some papers. But do I need a law degree to coach? If so, coaches will be an endangered species. I feel we won the title on the field fair and square, and we’ll put up one hell of a fight to retain it.”