Florida high school coach fired for telling players to ‘stop acting black’
A Florida high school football coach lost his job after he allegedly made racist comments to players — telling them to “stop acting black,” according to a report.
Kendall Bradley, the former head football coach at Atlantic High School in Port Orange, was also accused of sexting two 15-year-old girls in late 2017, leading the state to permanently revoke his teaching license in December, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
Bradley, who was never criminally charged, denied the accusations in a statement to the newspaper after it obtained investigative reports from Volusia County Schools, Port Orange police and the Florida Department of Education on the complaints — including some from players and their relatives.
The young athletes reported that Bradley told them to “stop acting black” and allegedly shared their grades with other teammates as a way to embarrass them.
The coach was also accused of using profanity during the team’s win-less 2017 season.
Bradley was allowed to work as a substitute teacher in Volusia County until February 2018 — when the father of one 15-year-old girl told the principal of Atlantic High School about the alleged tawdry text, the newspaper reported.
A Port Orange police spokesman said cops got in touch with school staffers regarding the texts, but he couldn’t say exactly when because the incident occurred more than two years ago.
Bradley lost his job as a gym teacher and football coach at the high school in November 2017 — but he wasn’t barred from student contact until three months later on Feb. 5, 2018.
At the time, he told the News-Journal that he had been fired without cause, but district investigators cited complaints that the coach made derogatory racial statements in front of students.
Bradley was also barred from working for Volusia County Schools after his termination, but his personnel file was updated two weeks later declaring him eligible to interview for open positions, the newspaper reports.
He was later pulled from the classroom in February 2018 when the father told district officials that the then-31-year-old man was soliciting sex from two 15-year-old girls, internal reports show.
The messages — sent less than a week after Bradley lost his coaching job — allegedly showed that Bradley asked the teens to send him nude photos and also wanted them to have group sex with him and other women, the newspaper reported.
One of the students also told cops that Bradley sent her a nude photo of himself on Snapchat, according to a police report.
No evidence was found of the photo being sent, however, and cops did not contact Bradley at the time. The case was ultimately closed when the student’s father stopped cooperating with investigators, according to the police report.
District officials later closed their investigation after Bradley said he no longer wanted to work for Volusia County Schools. He also declined to address the allegations he faced, the newspaper reports.
Bradley lost his teaching certificate on Dec. 13, 2019, after the school district closed its investigation — a move he did not contest. He told the newspaper he was unaware of some of the claims.
“As I have just been informed, information that I had no knowledge of, and is not correct, was filed and made public,” Bradley told the newspaper in a statement. “I have never been approached with, or asked about these situations personally, nor was I made aware that they had been used when they were.”
Bradley insisted his only goal while at Atlantic High School was to be a “positive influence” on the students and the community.
“At no point did I communicate or interact inappropriately with any student,” Bradley’s statement continued. “Nor was I discriminatory or out of line in my communication with student athletes.”
Photo Credit: University of Missouri Athletics