Aliyya Swaby Photo
Dozens of teachers and parents turned out to rally against — and support — the transfer of a longtime Career High School baseball coach to a middle school classroom.
Some speakers at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting portrayed the math teacher and former coach, Brad Chernovetz (at right in above photo), as a father figure villainized by disgruntled parents.
Others called him an aggressive bully who manhandled students, getting away with out-of-control behavior for years despite complaints to education officials, some of which have been documented in government emails. The action taken against the coach followed recent increased involvement in Board of Education affairs by City Hall.
Superintendent Garth Harries said he would not comment on why he decided to transfer Chernovetz instead of firing him. He said Chernovetz’s success as a teacher “doesn’t excuse the responsibility to maintain his professionalism and maintain his accord for all students in his care.”
Chernovetz said the specific complaints are unsubstantiated and that district officials were wrong to involuntarily transfer him to a middle school classroom.
Supporters Speak Out
Current and former players showed up to support Chernovetz Monday, filling rows of seats in the John Martinez School cafetorium and applauding loudly after supportive public comments.
Chernovetz was a Career High math teacher and baseball coach for the last 18 years. Last spring, he was told parents had filed complaints and reports against him and that district officials would have to investigate. He was not allowed to teach this fall during the investigation.
Friday he received a message telling him to report to Wexler/Grant School instead of Career. And Monday afternoon, he said, he received an email telling him he would no longer be Career’s baseball coach. He’ll teach math at Wexler/Grant.
Teachers union Vice-President Tom Burns teared up when he described Chernovetz as a “legend, bright light, [and] institution” respected by his colleagues.
He called the investigation “scary” since it ended in the transfer of a teacher in the middle of the school year.
Ten-year Career High teacher Chris Brennan said Chernovetz’s presence in the building decreased students’ behavioral problems because he was a strong leader and community “pillar.”
“Are we down a math teacher because of playing time?” he said.
Another teacher, Bob Osborne, expressed concern at the lack of transparency in the investigation process. He said the complaints of a few parents “upset about playing time” were being prioritized over the needs of all students.
And teachers union chief steward Marianne Maloney, a math teacher for 15 years, chastised district officials for transferring a high school math teacher to an elementary school. “We are not pawns who can be picked up and thrown around,” she said. “There are very few experienced math teachers left in New Haven. Please please consider that we are dedicated professionals.”
Chernovetz told the Independent he thought parents had filed complaints because he had reduced their children’s playing time on the baseball field. “I knew parents weren’t happy,” he said. But he denied all allegations of verbal or physical abuse against students.
Some parents backed his statements. Yajaira Martinez and Dalia Torres, whose sons have been coached by Chernovetz for three years, said the parents who complained were bringing personal issues into the high school sport.
“Some parents need to learn to be a supporter and not a parent on the field,” Martinez said. Playing baseball, she said, was her son’s dream. Now that the team has no coach, he will not be able to reach it, she said.
Martinez said she had been praying that Chernovetz would be reinstated as coach at Career.
Superintendent Harries said the outpouring of support for Chernovetz showed a “collective mythology and inability to understand what may have been problematic treatment and interactions with students” and it confirmed for him that he “made the right decision in asking Brad to take his teaching abilities to another environment where I think he can be a good teacher. At the end of the day, we are not talking about [former assistant coach convicted of sexual assault] Jerry Sandusky from Penn State. If that were the case, he absolutely would be fired. But I think, this is progressive discipline and discipline designed to encourage growth and learning from someone who is a good teacher and good coach but needs to be attentive to the ways his actions and inactions hurt students.”
In-House Investigation
Paul Bass Photo
Bartlett: Why wasn’t action taken sooner?
Parents who spoke out against Chernovetz described a pattern of aggression against students. Their stories mirrored those contained in email correspondence among government officials, obtained by the New Haven Independent through the Freedom of Information Act, showing that the Board of Ed has been quietly looking into his behavior.
One parent sent a statement to Jason Bartlett, the mayor’s liaison to the Board of Ed, describing the way Chernovetz reacted to the news that her son had been injured off of the field in April 2014.
A drunk man on a moped had hit her son, causing him to break his arm — so he would be out for the rest of the season. But when her son told Chernovetz, according to the statement, he “put him against the wall and said, ‘get the fuck out of my face, you’re not getting any sympathy from me.’ Chernovetz told [the son] he was off the team and asked for his shirt back.”
The parent said her son was depressed for three days and didn’t go to school. She reported the incident to Career Principal Madeline Negron and insisted that the principal be present at a meeting with the coach.
According to the parent, Chernovetz called her and said, “Who the hell do you think you are — talking to my boss? I’ve done more for your son then you have done! I told all the parents not to give you my number. I told everyone you and those annex people…there is going to be no meeting. This is the meeting!”
She said Chernovetz then approached her to apologize at a game her son was playing that fall. According to the parent, he told her it was a misunderstanding and that he had not realized her son was hit by a drunk driver. Chernovetz said he thought the son had been driving the moped and that he hoped that there was no need for a meeting with the principal and athletic director.
For the next several, the parent reported in her statement, Chernovetz called her to urge her to cancel the meeting. Ultimately, she said, nothing came out of the meeting, not even an apology.
On May 11, Bartlett sent an email to Superintendent Harries listing the parent complaints he had received in the mayor’s office against Chernovetz and Career’s Assistant Coach David “Duke” Higgins.
One parent reported April 7 that Chernovetz had verbally intimidated and abused his son, leading him to seek counseling.
Another parent reported April 28 that Chernovetz bullied his son because of his weight, calling him “cupcake” among other names.
A third parent reported in March that Chernovetz and Higgins used the racial epithets “spic” and “blackie” to refer to their players.
Bartlett asked Harries in a May 11 email what the district had done to try to stop the alleged abuse, why the coach had not at that point been suspended during the investigation, and whether the Department of Children and Families had been informed of the alleged abuse.
“My questions to New Haven Public Schools are: what actions have you taken to date to stop the abuse? Why hasn’t the Coach been suspended while the investigation is ongoing? What are the New Haven Public Schools protocols in this situation and are they being followed by your athletic department and BOE staff?” Bartlett wrote to Harries.
“I’m very concerned that students are intimidated and are not speaking forthrightly to BOE investigators because of past inaction and a fear of retribution.”
Harries responded May 12 that the district had done an investigation and was “moving to discipline the coach but NOT to remove him from the team — although he has a rough style, the more substantial allegations were NOT substantiated.”
Parent complaints continued to roll in. “You are nothing but a fucking Annex punk. That’s the problem with you people. You think you know everything,” one parent quoted Chernovetz as telling her son, in a June email.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Harries: Outpouring of support shows “collective mythology” of coach
“Brad, who is a Mandated Reporter, not only didn’t protect my son during [an] incident when Duke premeditated his physical threat to him, he also told him to listen to him and instructed him to not tell his parents. And then he also CALLED HIM ON HIS CELL PHONE to once again instruct him and further intimidate him to not tell his parents. His abuse of his authority is abhorrent; as well as illegal,” the parent wrote.
“My concern is that raising teenagers is a difficult enough job as it is with all that we face daily. With teenage suicide and depression that afflicts so many kids today, the idea that a person of authority would abuse his power so much as to tell a child to keep something from his parents is just something I cannot get past. It’s a difficult job as a parent to keep those lines of communication open with your child, letting them know that they can come to you with anything and that you will protect and support and defend them. But then to also have to battle against a teacher or a coach who uses fear and intimidation to scare my son into not keeping things from his parents after I fight so hard to keep my son talking is someone who is unworthy of his authority. “
Another parent wrote officials in June to complain that Chernovetz should have received more than a verbal reprimand for his behavior: “It appears as no more than a cover up. You have 4 complaints by 4 minors of abuse and harassment. Abuse in any form, physical or emotional, is ABUSE. As administrators and educators, isn’t it your job, responsibility and obligation to protect the children?”
Chernovetz told the Independent that all of those complaints were “very untrue” and “unsubstantiated” after the four-month investigation.
I've seen coach Chernovetz on the field during the high school season. From what I saw, this appears to be the right decision.