COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Colerain High School students protested outside campus Monday after they said their dance coaches were fired.
“They were the only people who believed in us,” said dance captain Alena Ferrell. “They built us up from the ground up.”
Ferrell has been dancing since she was 8 years old.
“It’s an outlet for me. I used to be a very, very, shy girl as a child and it like brought me out of my shell and made me have confidence within myself,” Ferrell said.
She said being a part of the dance club provides a space for students who need a creative outlet.
“This team gives the community a safe place to go. If they’re having trouble at home, trouble at school, we are welcoming to everyone. And it just gives everyone a shelter and a safe place to go,” Ferrell said.
Colerain's former dance club coach, Cheryl Cooper, said she and two other coaches were unjustly fired on Friday. All of them were volunteers.
“I did take all the training required through the state to be a coach here, yet they pulled my volunteer permit with no warning — no reason except for to open up the coach's position to someone else within the district,” Cooper said.
In a letter sent to parents, the district said in part, “The Colerain High School Dance Club will be transitioning into a CHS School Drill Team.
“As a result of reclassifying the club and due to the alignment with the current job description, we are required by our union agreement and state law to post the position through our human resources office and offer the position to a current staff member and not rely on a volunteer to supervise the team.”
The district posted a job opening on Friday for a new drill/dance team sponsor.
Cooper said she feels like discrimination played a role in the firings. She claims the team hasn’t been treated fairly from the beginning.
“When we first formed until now until recently (they've) basically just left it on me. We received no instruction, no direction. We’ve just figured it out,” she said. “Along the way, they’ve sent us rules when requested but the rules continue to change. We continue to meet them and every step they change again.”
Cooper said some of the changes include the number of students on the team. WCPO 9 obtained emails between Cooper and CHS Athletic Director Matt Stoinoff.
In a July email to Cooper, Stoinoff stated he “would need to see consistently 12 to 15 girls showing up on a regular basis to be able to perform at any event. My suggestion would be use the fall to continue to practice and to recruit more girls.”
Then in an August email to Cooper, Stoinoff stated that “to meet expectations, we would expect that at least 8-10 students will consistently practice and participate. I would definitely keep recruiting and we can help by putting the invitation on the announcements.”
Cooper said Stoinoff and CHS Principal Erin Davis attended a practice and the rehearsal generated some concerns about performance length time and professionalism.
In an email to Cooper, Stoinoff noted the dancers needed to be in matching outfits, their music and all routines needed to be approved by the administration.
Cooper said she reached out to other coaches within the school about the matching uniforms during practice, and those coaches told her they weren’t required to do that.
“The girls are forced to do multiple showcases that no other team does. They’ve been called unpolished and unprofessional,” Cooper said. “I feel like it is a new team, it is something different. It is predominantly, it is an all Black team. And, I think that is something new to Colerain and the district.”
Cooper described one interaction she had with a school official about the team.
“He stated, 'If I was a 65-year-old man who has been in Colerain my entire life, if I was at a game and watched you perform would I be offended by you?' So to me that says the things that we are facing is because of the limited mindsets of some people,” Cooper said.
“I just think they’re not receptive to dance. They don’t want diversity within their school,” Ferrell said.
Cooper said the dance club has received positive feedback from the community, which is a reason why she thinks the school wants to take over.
“I think that they think we are not good enough. I think that in the beginning, they felt like we would not make it, they felt like we could not pull the girls together and they wouldn’t look as a team, but now that the community has taken to them, other schools have taken to them, the students, the band, they love them, and now I feel like the school is ready to take over now that they have accomplished becoming a real team,” she said.
Cooper, Ferrell, most of the team and the other two fired coaches attended the Northwest Local School District Board of Education meeting to share their side of the story.
BOE president told WCPO 9 “no comment” when asked about the situation with the dance team. The superintendent said to contact the district's public information officer regarding whether or not the school district would hire new coaches because he had to attend the BOE’s executive session meeting.
Watch Live:
