By Chris Yow
Editor
JEFFERSON COUNTY — Jefferson County Superintendent Dr. Craig Pouncey said Wednesday he hoped the latest incident at Clay-Chalkville High School involving a 15-year-old student and an adult female will be a lesson to future coaches and educators who allow former students to come back and be part of an athletic or academic program.
According to Alan Collins at WBRC, Pouncey said Willyncia Joy Harper underwent a background check and passed it. Pouncey now says he was mistaken.
“Let me rectify that statement,” he said. “At that point and time, I assumed she was a volunteer coach. I was corrected. What I said was that all volunteer coaches are required to go through that process. At that point and time, I was unaware that she was not a volunteer coach. As it was first presented to me, it was a volunteer coach we were reporting on.”
Pouncey now says Harper did not go through any vetting process because she was not submitted as a volunteer coach.
“She was nothing more than just a spectator at the time,” he said.
Only volunteers who are with the program on a day-to-day basis are required to go through the board’s process, and afterwards are subject to the process of the Alabama High School Athletic Association. Having former school athletes come back isn’t unusual, and in most cases the visits are positive.
“All high schools have alumni who come back after going off to play college ball. A lot of times, they serve as a motivating factor for kids. Showing them if they do what’s right, you can get an education through athletics. That’s important,” he said.
Those who aren’t full-time volunteers are the responsibility of coaches and athletic directors.
“That’s something we have to depend on our coaches and athletic directors to keep an eye on. We just have to depend on our coaches that proper behavior is always adhered to and that they’re compliant with board policies,” Pouncey said. “We have to be very careful who will be allowed to regularly be around the kids. We have a process at the board office where they have to go through the same thing a teacher would have to go through.”
That process is important, and Pouncey knows that without volunteers many sports wouldn’t have coaches. Properly vetting those volunteers, however, is a very important process.
“Any time you deal with background checks, whether it be a substitute teacher or volunteer coach, the only thing you can judge on is what they’ve done in the past,” he said. “As many athletic events as we have, it’s hard to have enough teachers to cover it. Some of these sports depend on these volunteers. We just have to make sure they’re properly vetted if they’re perceived as an assistant coach or full-time volunteer on staff.”
One Comment
Tina Hamrick
I hope at some point he also expressed concern for the child’s well being and recovery from being taken advantage of and some how that was just left out of this article. I hope placing blame or responsibility was secondary to genuine concern for the student involved being taken care of.