A North Carolina high school football coach stepped down from his position last week after the school district began an investigation into potential grade-fixing.
According to local CBS affiliate WNCN, Hunter Jenks resigned from his position as head coach at Clayton (N.C.) High School last Tuesday in order to take a position elsewhere within the district. He has reportedly taken a position at West Millbrook Middle School, where he’ll coach football.
However, parents and players in the Clayton program told WNCN that the program had come under suspicion recently, having been accused of grade-fixing.
In a letter announcing his resignation, Jenks told members of the team that the district superintendent, Dr. Ross Renfrow, had met with him to assure him “that there was no evidence of academic fraud, player ineligibility or recruiting found as a result of the 10-week investigation this summer.”
The school’s principal, Dr. Bennett Jones, was reassigned to a different role just prior to that meeting.
Jones’ reassignment left some members of the community dumbstruck, as WNCN reports that students rallied at school board meetings demanding that he be reinstated as the principal.
“If there was anything egregious that happened, Dr. Jones would have been fired or suspended. Coach Jenks would have been fired or suspended,” football parent Kim Winslow told WNCN.
Clayton named Robert Senseney the football team’s interim head coach. They lost their season opener on Friday by a margin of 48-2.
