Head basketball coach and special education teacher Mike Molieri was placed on administrative leave at the beginning of this school year pending an investigation into alleged student privacy violations.
Mike Molieri has been working at M-A as a special education teacher since 2003 and as a basketball coach since 2012.
At a Sept. 11 board meeting, community members made several public comments asking for transparency about Mike Molieri’s reasons for absence. In response, Superintendent Crystal Leach announced that, because the comments are about personnel issues, the District would be unable to provide context or information about the allegations against Mike Molieri unless he waives his confidentiality rights.
When reached for comment, Mike Molieri referred the M-A Chronicle to his brother, private investigator Dan Molieri.
Dan Molieri provided the M-A Chronicle with a copy of the administrative leave notice sent to Mike Molieri on Aug. 5, which stipulated that he is not allowed to enter any District sites, access any District technology, including his work email, and unable to communicate with parents, staff, or students.
In the notice, the District stated that they are investigating allegations that Mike Molieri “engaged in misconduct which includes, but is not limited to, alleged violations of student rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, Student confidentiality and privacy laws, and California law.”
Mike Molieri’s lawyers requested the District to provide specific allegations and that they identify the complainant within 45 days of his notice to leave. That deadline has since passed and the District still has not provided this information.
“The District has failed for 45 days, after numerous requests from Mr. Molieri’s administrative lawyer to say what, where, when, and the most important question: who’s making these false allegations, and who the reporting party is,” Dan Molieri said.
The M-A Chronicle reached out to the District for comment on the allegations but did not receive a response prior to the publication of this article.
When Mike Molieri returned to campus on Aug. 10, he was immediately asked to leave by Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Todd Beal, Dan Molieri said. Mike Molieri has not been on campus since school started.
Mike Molieri also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). “Once [the EEOC] investigates it, individuals are given the right to sue. And once we have the right to sue, we’ll be taking civil action towards [the District] for what they’ve done to Mike in a retaliatory way,” Dan Molieri said.
Dan Molieri also confirmed that the California Teachers’ Association filed a complaint with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement on behalf of the Sequoia District Teachers Association, the District’s teachers’ union. The complaint intends to force the District into listing Mike Molieri’s specific alleged violations.
The District has hired Van Dermyden Makus Investigations Law Firm to conduct a third-party investigation into the allegations. The M-A Chronicle reached out to the firm’s investigators, but they declined to comment.
Multiple M-A basketball players and parents attended District board meetings on Aug. 21 and Sept. 11 and spoke about Molieri during public comment.
“Coach has been something that I never thought I would get in high school: a teacher, a mentor, someone I can talk to about anything,” junior basketball player Jacob Sutton said at the August meeting. “To not have him has been rough. We’re not able to find out what’s going on. We want to be able to play and be high school students without all this stuff.”
“I miss Coach Mo on campus. He always makes me laugh,” senior basketball player Bobby Redmond said during public comment. “It’s a person of joy missing on our campus and I don’t know why, I’d like to know why, and I think we all deserve the right to know why.”
Jermaine Sutton, Jacob Sutton’s father, also spoke at the August meeting. “We sent several emails to our leadership team, they said, ‘We can’t tell you what’s going on,’” he said. “The African American community is very small at Menlo-Atherton—he provides a safe place for those boys that is being taken away right now.”
“We’re all just very surprised and blindsided by this,” Jacob Sutton said in an interview with the M-A Chronicle. “Mo provided a place for people to be vulnerable and get help if needed, and without that it hasn’t been the best start to the year. We just want our coach back.”
Assistant coach and P.E. teacher Craig Carson will serve as interim head coach for the team in Mike Molieri’s absence.
