Source: San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.mini storageDec. 21--Chino Hills -- The Ayala High father blamed for driving off a veteran cross country coach denies ever bullying or harassing her."I made zero demands of anybody," Jason Tullai said Thursday. "There was never any harassment of her or her staff whatsoever."Dawn Staab, who had coached cross country for the high school for 16 years, bringing home 11 league titles and taking either the boys' or girls' teams to the state championships eight times, announced her decision at the end of the season. Her two assistant coaches quit as well.Staab said school administrators did not help her or the coaching staff in the face of bullying, harassment and stalking by the parent, which Tullai vehemently denies."I didn't do any inappropriate behavior to anyone at any time," he said.Tullai's daughter Sydney, a sophomore at Ayala, has competed in national championships in track and set the world record time for an 11-year-old running the mile."I had been warned about this parent for five years before he came into this program," Staab said Thursday. "I choose to be neutral with everyone and start fresh."But as a freshman runner at Ayala High, Sydney hit the wall, burning out after a five-year running career."She's seeing her running career plateau," Tullai said, "which is frustrating for her."That's when the trouble began, he said: Tullai reached out to Staab, wanting to discuss Sydney's training regimen, but said he was ignored and he eventually went to the school's athletic director for help.Staab said Tullai was a demanding parent, constantly wanting her to adjust the team's training regimen."He was just 'no, she needs to do this, she needs to do that,'" she said. "It was every day, he had a breakthrough idea. ... I was just getting these emails that were 10 pages long, once a week."According to Tullai, he sent Staab 54 emails in a 12-month period, he said. In that same period, he said, Staab sent him (typically on mass emails to other parents) 406 emails, including seven in one day. He averaged one phone call to Staab a month, he said, many of them simple calls about where a meet or practice was occurring, or letting her know when he was running late."It was an everyday thing all through track and then all through the summer," Staab said.But this fall, things deteriorated further.Tullai pulled up alongside the team as they were running back during practice, he said. He and Sydney were late for a flight to visit his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, and he called for his daughter to get in the car so they could get to the airport.Staab remembers it differently."One day, he got so angry and he was asking everyone 'Where's Sydney?'" she said Thursday.And that was the day she'd had enough, she said: "Everybody was really shaken up. I went in to my athletic director and said, 'This is crazy, something has to change.'"Under California law, as a coach, Staab is required to report suspected child abuse to the police. Soon, Tullai found himself and his daughter being interviewed by 儲存olice doing a welfare check on his family.Things just got more contentious between the father and the coach after that."He just got more irritated by the minute and demanded meetings every single day," Staab said. "I had 120 kids on the team at that point and he wanted to have meetings every single day."Tullai had a complicated divorce from Sydney's mother, he said, and his part-time custody makes it impossible for his daughter to participate on a club cross country team, rather than the high school team."You can't be a half-time runner," he said.But that messy divorce is also why he can't have bullied Staab, he said: The stakes are too high if he ever steps over the line."I'm the last guy, because I went through child custody (battles), to bully anybody," he said.Tullai denies he stalked anyone involved with the team. With three kids in different schools and different activities, he often finds himself driving back and forth through Chino Hills, he said, crossing paths with the members of the cross country team who are running along the city's streets."You can't avoid that," he said. "That's not stalking."Staab said school officials ignored her pleas for help and told her to call 911 if she was approached by Tullai or felt threatened in any way. She asked for the written complaints she'd previously filed against him so she could turn them over to the police. Administrators no longer had the complaints, she said, and Staab and her assistant coaches were on their own."Suddenly, we were the pariah on campus, because they didn't know what to do and didn't have a plan," she said.At the end of the season pizza party for the team, Staab announced she would be stepping down at the end of the season, citing her relationship with an unnamed parent and the district's lack of help in dealing with him. Although Tullai wasn't named, he said his daughter called him in tears, asking to be picked up as soon as possible, as everyone believed Staab was talking about him and were blaming them for Staab's decision to step down.Tullai denied doing anything wrong."There was never any loud talking with her or the staff," he said. "No aggressive, threatening conversations -- zero."A job listing for a new cross country coach at Ayala High will be posted "early in the new year," according to Chino Valley Unified spokeswoman Julie Gobin on Thursday.Staab has no intention of returning to the role, she said."I don't leave just to be asked back. I'm not coming back," she said.But that doesn't preclude her moving her program to another high school: Staab said she's been approached by several other schools."I just want to take a step back and think about what it is (I want) and where I'm going from here," she said.Tullai hopes the school and cross country team can start over."I'm hoping for all the best, for the kids, for my daughter," he said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.) Visit the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.) at .sbsun.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉
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