A Willis ISD teacher asked to be relieved of his coaching duties after an exercise left students with blisters on their hands, district officials said Tuesday.
On Aug. 30, a Brabham Middle School coach and teacher told student athletes to do 100 yards of bear crawls after they were “asked multiple times to be quiet and stay in line” while a photographer was taking team photos, according to an email from the coach to parents that was obtained by ABC13 and verified by the district.Â
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The coach stopped the exercise after the student athletes complained that their hands hurt, according to the email. ABC13 reported that one student was treated for first and second degree burns.Â
“I feel terrible about the entire situation,” the coach wrote in the email. “I apologized to the team at the end of practice but wanted to reach out and apologize to the parents.”Â
The coach asked to be relieved of his coaching duties “in order to fully focus on his family and his core assignment teaching math,” according to a Sept. 4 statement from Willis ISD, which was the second the district released on the matter. Â
“The district did not fire him, nor did we ask him to resign,” the statement reads.
The coach was not reachable by phone Tuesday.Â
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A petition was created Sept. 2, asking the district to reinstate the coach. As of Tuesday, the petition had more than 1,600 signatures.Â
In a Sept. 1 statement, Willis ISD officials said they “sincerely regret when any student is injured at school.”
“We want our parents and community to be assured that the safety and well-being of our students are always our primary care,” the statement reads.
