Four players in the boys’ basketball program at Lincoln High School in Portland, Ore., allege in a new legal filing that the head coach barred three of them from the varsity team in retaliation for playing games for a coaching rival, while also alleging the coach repeatedly dropped a homophobic slur in front of players.
As reported by Joanna Hou of Willamette Week, Heather Seely-Roberts, the only woman coaching a 6A boys’ varsity basketball team in Oregon, took the Lincoln Cardinals to third place in the Class 6A state tournament during the 2022–23 school year.
Portland lawyer Kevin Brague last month filed a tort claim notice with Portland Public Schools on behalf of the four Lincoln students, who use only their initials in the complaint.
The notice — which serves as a formal warning of intent to sue — alleges that Seely-Roberts’ behavior violated multiple provisions of Portland Public Schools Board policy, Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission regulations, and the Oregon School Activities Association’s adopted Coaches Code of Ethics.
An attorney for Seely-Roberts, Ross Denison, strongly denied the accusations in a statement to WW.
“Under her leadership, players on the Lincoln High School team earn their spot based on abilities and performance—not favoritism or nepotism,” Denison wrote. “Through competitive tryouts, team placements are decided unanimously by eight basketball coaches and the District’s athletic director. Despite this transparent, merit-based system, certain privileged and influential parents at Lincoln High School refuse to consider the possibility that their player is not deserving of a position on varsity, choosing instead to scapegoat Coach Roberts through a campaign of unrelenting false and defamatory accusations.”
He added: “The recent tort claim notice filed by one of these families is more of the same: lies and allegations that are verifiably false.”
After WW reached out to Seely-Roberts’ legal team for comment, attorneys provided WW with a copy of a legal claim she filed against the school district in October, saying PPS officials failed to protect her from disgruntled parents.
In the Dec. 5 notice, the four students allege Seely-Roberts had a “personal vendetta” against a former coach who now coaches for the Amateur Athletic Union. The notice alleges multiple instances, as recent as November, in which Seely-Roberts did not let players associated with the rival coach to join the varsity team at Lincoln, and the notice further alleges she lied to a player about when basketball tryouts were. Seely-Roberts also blocked parents from accessing her Instagram account in the fall, thus limiting their access to team-related communications, the notice alleges.
"While the rival coach remains unnamed in the notice, WW has reviewed emails that indicate it is Will Boettcher, who coached JV2 basketball under Seely-Roberts during the 2021-22 academic year," Hou reported. "In 2023 and earlier this year, Boettcher sent emails to multiple PPS officials, including Lincoln principal Peyton Chapman and district athletic director Marshall Haskins. In those emails, Boettcher voiced concern about Seely-Roberts’ remarks about student-athletes."
“I care about these boys very much and am hopeful that necessary actions are taken to alleviate the influence of Ms. Roberts,” Boettcher wrote in a 2023 email to Chapman.
Per Hou's reporting, PPS on Aug. 2 released results of an investigation that substantiated “some claims of retaliation by Coach Roberts” after two parents reported she had tried withhold their son’s placement on a team. Seely-Roberts wanted to meet with the family after they raised concerns about her to Chapman, thereby going “over her head,” the report on the investigation read.
“This course of action by Coach Roberts to try to intimidate and force your family to agree to comply with not making complaints over her head before she would place [redacted] on a team, and to further shame you and [redacted] for making complaints the prior season, is retaliation,” the report read. “This behavior was intended to punish, intimidate, and prevent the [redacted] family (and perhaps other families) from making complaints outside of the communication ‘chain of command’ as you had done.”
On Sept. 24, the Portland Public Schools Board voted 6–1 to substantiate a second claim of retaliation from the investigation in which the family alleged Seely-Roberts intentionally omitted them from team-wide emails and communications, Hou reported.
"Perhaps more explosive," Hou wrote, "is the allegation that Seely-Roberts repeatedly used a homophobic slur in front of students and approached a group of Black students and asked if they were 'doing gang signs.' ”
After a player had his ears pierced in June, the tort claim alleges, Seely-Roberts remarked that “back in my day we called those kind of people faggots.” The tort claim notice alleges she referred to players on her team with the slur on two other occasions this year, once in a car with students and another time at basketball practice.
“In response to these false allegations, Coach Roberts has been investigated by the District twice, and there’s never been a finding that she engaged in racist or homophobic conduct,” Denison wrote. “She has had to file her own tort claim notice and a harassment complaint due to the ongoing harassment she’s experienced from these families.”
Parents of players on the team have gone on the record expressing their concern, per Hou's reporting. “There is no place for homophobic slurs and there needs to be accountability for our educators and coaches,” said Trevor Kafoury, a Lincoln basketball parent.
If substantiated, Seely-Roberts’ actions violate several district and statewide teaching regulations, which include policies that prohibit harassment based on sexual orientation and race.
The tort claim notice demands that the school district immediately investigate the complaints. “A claim for damages,” the notice reads, “will be asserted against Portland Public Schools including but not limited to negligent hiring and retention, intentional infliction of emotional distress, discrimination, and retaliation.”
