Parents cite verbal abuse in appeal for coach’s removal

Arcadia High School’s girls basketball team has dealt with bullying and verbal abuse by their coach for the past two years, according to a group of parents.

Seven parents and community members told the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board at a public meeting Tuesday night that school administrators didn’t do enough to address complaints about coach Sarah Boustila for 18 months and asked that her coaching contract not be renewed.

Boustila, who didn’t return calls for comment, has been a district employee since 1997. Currently a math teacher at Arcadia High School, she was given additional responsibilities as the girls basketball coach in 2005, according to the district.

Parents said they started noticing issues in November 2005, when some of the girls told their parents that Boustila used expletives as she told them they were “pathetic” and an “embarrassment to their school” after a loss, according to a 34-page complaint written by parents Tom and Jeanne Bookhout.

When parents approached her and asked that she not use offensive language, they said Boustila denied she had said any such thing.

The problems continued through the season and Boustila instructed the players not to tell their parents about issues, according to the complaint.

In spring 2006, the team was encouraged to openly discuss their concerns in a meeting with Boustila and an assistant principal. Two of the girls, Tracy Bookhout and Hannah Laskin, spoke up for the rest of the team at that meeting.

“It felt like it was tearing us down,” Tracy said of the language allegedly used by the coach.

When tryouts came around the next school year, Tracy and Hannah, two of the team’s top players, were cut.

Tom Bookhout said he approached Boustila when he heard that his daughter probably wasn’t going to be accepted back onto the team.

He said Boustila acknowledged Tracy had talent, but added that she had a bad attitude because she didn’t say hello to the coach in the halls or visit her in her classroom.

While the assistant principals were sympathetic to the situation, two athletic directors and the principal backed up the coach, said parent Mary Hoffman Laskin.

Some of the parents have since appealed to the district and gotten a better response, Hoffman Laskin said. However, they were told many of their complaints couldn’t be investigated because they were no longer timely or couldn’t be proven.

Hoffman Laskin said she and Jeanne Bookhout last met with administrators Tuesday, who told the parents Boustila was going to be monitored for six months and have a mentor next school year.

A district spokeswoman said she could not comment on the situation or confirm whether there was any corrective action because it’s a personnel matter.

However, spokeswoman Marijke Van Fleet said the district had spent more than 100 hours investigating the matter and considered it closed.

The families involved said they don’t currently have plans to take any other action, but still thought it was important to draw attention to the issue at the board meeting.

“We haven’t yet served the girls,” Hoffman Laskin said. “We don’t want any of these girls to walk away from this getting the message that if something’s wrong, you need to shut up.”