Saturday, October 29, 2016

Despite attempts to fire him, Fort Worth coach Johnnie Cole remains on the job

FORT WORTH, Texas -- This report contains graphic descriptions.

Where Johnnie Cole goes, trouble often follows.

Two years after being fired as football coach at Texas Southern University over accusations that he violated NCAA rules — not his first run-in with the NCAA — Cole was hired as a teacher and assistant coach at Eastern Hills High School in Fort Worth.

Walter Dansby, Fort Worth’s superintendent in 2013, said he didn’t want to hire Cole but faced pressure from some school board members to find the embattled coach a job.

Cole’s connection-laden path to Fort Worth started in controversy and could have ended months ago after he was accused of having an improper relationship with an Eastern Hills student during the 2014-15 school year. An internal report by the school district’s Office of Professional Standards said the student told an investigator that Cole had sex with her, had friends threaten her with retaliation and suggested that she work as a prostitute.

It’s a felony for an educator to engage in sexual contact with a student of the same school or district, including those who are 18.

But the student, now in her second year at a community college ...

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