Columbia High School Coach Accused Of 'Bullying' Reappointed For New Season

The South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education has reappointed an embattled baseball coach at Columbia High School accused of fostering a “bullying” environment along with other coaching staff.

During a public board meeting on Monday, members voted 6 to 3 to reappoint Joe Fischetti and his assistants, the Maplewoodian reported.

The decision comes a week after a former CHS baseball player filed a lawsuit against the district and several of its staff members, alleging that coaches and school administrators allowed a “culture of discriminatory conduct including harassment, intimidation, bullying and retaliation” to take root at the high school.

• See related article: CHS Student: My High School Baseball Coaches Were ‘Bullies’

According to the lawsuit:

• Coaches allegedly made repeated “lewd, racist and vulgar” comments to him and other players, including alleged racial slurs and negative comments about homosexuality
• “Despite knowledge of the inappropriate conduct, the [Board of Education] permitted the unlawful action to continue”

The lawsuit also claims that after the former player began to raise concerns about a possible bullying culture, coaches began to retaliate against him by leaving him out of team events and workouts, intimidating him during a locker room meeting and eventually cutting him from the team during his senior year.

Fischetti, a named defendant in the lawsuit, told the Village Green in February that he disagrees with the accusations of inappropriate conduct among coaches on his team.

“In 16 years in this community I’ve never been accused of any” of these things,” Fischetti said. “If there was a history…I would think that they would have shown up before tonight.”

See videos from Monday’s public meeting here.

Sign up for Patch email newsletters here.