Arcadia High School coach James O'Brien, who has led the cross country team to two CIF State and three CIF-Southern Section championships, has been fired. He was told the reason was, "We want to go in a different direction." He will remain a teacher at Arcadia High School.
Arcadia High School reported CIF-SS rules violation before firing coach James O'Brien. CIF-SS spokesman Thom Simmons declined to elaborate on the notification. O'Brien's supporters have begun a recall campaign targeting Arcadia Unified School District board members Cung Nguyen, Lori Phillipi, and Kay Kinsler.
Arcadia Unified School District's Board of Education took no action to reinstate fired coach James O'Brien as head cross country coach of Arcadia High School.
Arcadia Unified School District's Board of Education upholds its decision of having fired cross country coach James O'Brien. There were no details about the reasons of his dismissal.
Fired Arcadia High School cross country coach James O'Brien questions reason for dismissal. The Arcadia Unified School District's Board of Education upholds its decision to not reappoint Mr. O'Brien as head coach for the 2013-2014 year. He will continue to teach at Arcadia High School.
A message supporting embattled former Arcadia High School cross country coach James O'Brien, sent by a concerned parent named Michael Yamane, was forwarded to the police by a school board member. Yamane's email urged the district to reconsider its firing of O'Brien, accuses district officials of abusing employees, lying about a CIF-SS investigation into O'Brien's program, and suggested officials might be breaking state law. Yamane is concerned about his constitutional right to free speech, after his email was forwarded to police. Yamane is also a proponent of the "Recall Arcadia" campaign, which seeks to recall three school board members.
Support grows to reinstate the suddenly fired Arcadia High School boys' cross country coach James O'Brien. He has led the Apaches cross country team to two state and two national titles in the last three years. More than 200 supporters attended the district board of education meeting.
A video created by three Arcadia High School graduates went viral and brought people to a school board meeting alst week, in support of fired cross country coach James O'Brien. The creators of the video are Esmond Wei, Ben Hsueh, and Sergio Rodriguez. The video was posted on YouTube.com and had more than 10,000 views in three days. A week later, it had more than 16,000 views.