This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
So you think the high school coach is a jerk, and you want someone to stop him from yelling at your kid during practices?
Careful what you say. Depending on which way the Utah Supreme Court rules in a pending case, you might be successfully sued for defamation if your criticism is too harsh.
The case pits Michael O'Connor, who coached the Lehi High School girls' basketball team for three years, against parents who alleged he was demoralizing team members by berating them and favoring one player over the others.
At the end of the 2003-04 season, tensions had risen so much that relatives of some of the players wrote letters outlining their concerns and a handful of them spoke at an Alpine School District Board meeting about their frustrations. A few months later, in September 2004, the Lehi High principal dismissed O'Connor as head coach of the team.
O'Connor then filed a suit accusing 27 parents of making defamatory statements to get him fired because they were jealous of the playing time received by the top player. The defendants responded that nothing they said or wrote was defamatory and that the federal and state constitutions protect their right to petition government officials for redress of their grievances.
As the referees in the case, Utah Supreme Court justices will hear arguments on Friday about whether to reinstate the lawsuit, which was dismissed by a 4th District judge.
The justices will consider whether O'Connor, who still teaches at Lehi and is head golf coach, is a public official. That designation requires him to show the parents made statements with actual malice, meaning they either knew they were false or had serious doubts about whether they were true - a tough standard to meet.
The court's decision could affect how much leeway people have in complaining about a coach or a teacher, according to lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who represents the parents.
A ruling that O'Connor is not a public official, he said, would hamper a person's right to publicly criticize and the right to ask the government - in this case, a school board - to address concerns.
"It cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment," Trentadue said.
Joseph Rust, an attorney for O'Connor, counters that parents have many opportunities to bring legitimate complaints. The school administration addressed their concerns but the parents still wrote "inflammatory letters," he said.
And in a friend-of-the-court brief, the Utah Education Association argues that educators, including coaches, are not public figures.
According to a brief by the defendants, the girls basketball team improved its winning percentage while O'Connor was coach from 2001 to 2004, but the increasing success was accompanied by sinking morale.
The complaints began piling up over alleged abusive comments, a suspected recruitment irregularity and possible mishandling of money raised by players. Particularly troublesome to many of the parents was O'Connor's perceived favoritism toward Michelle Harrison, a 6-foot-2 forward considered one of the top players in Utah.
School administrators investigated and concluded there was no wrongful recruiting based on rules in place at the time or mishandling of funds by O'Connor. But the parents were still upset by the way the coach yelled at their daughters and allegedly failed to give them their share of playing time.
Soon after the board meeting, according to the parents' brief, the Lehi High principal was told that O'Connor had said he might cut from the team two girls whose parents had been particularly outspoken. The parents say the principal relieved O'Connor of his duties as head coach for refusing to recant that statement.
O'Connor describes his firing a little differently.
"Even after the parents had made their false, accusatory claims, the girls who were the daughters of the parents' ringleaders continued to play on the team," his lawyers wrote in a brief. "However, when O'Connor refused to commit that he would never cut them and refused to guarantee them significant playing time, he was terminated. Somehow, what was a privilege under Utah law became a right at Lehi High School."
Harrison transferred to Mountain View High in fall 2004. The Utah High School Activities Association approved the transfer based on evidence that the environment at Lehi was too negative for her to succeed. She flourished at her new school and was named a McDonald's All-American last spring.
In January, 4th District Judge James R. Taylor granted judgment in favor of the parents, ruling O'Connor is a public official and that he had produced no evidence the defendants acted with actual malice. That ruling led to the appeal.