CPS Suspends Two Basketball Coaches After Game Fight Leads To Fatality
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 23, 2013 10:30PM
Chicago Public Schools has suspended the head basketball coaches from Simeon and Morgan Park high schools after a fight broke out during the handshake line at the end of a Jan. 16 game. Shortly after, Tyrone Lawson, 17, was fatally shot multiple times in a parking lot outside the gymnasium at Chicago State University.
Simeon coach Robert Smith and Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin each will be suspended for four games for violating the Code of Conduct "through both words and actions." CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett wrote in a statement:
Coaches in Chicago Public Schools must serve as mentors, instructors and role models for our students both on and off the court or field of competition. The children under their charge take their cues from them on what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Knowing this, coaches must at all times conduct themselves in a professional and sportsmanlike manner. Through both words and actions, the boys basketball coaches of Morgan Park and Simeon High Schools on Jan. 16 violated the Code of Conduct to which they all must subscribe as a basic responsibility of their positions. We have taken the proper disciplinary steps to address their actions.
Two players were suspended for their role in the post-game scuffle, and access to the the Friday, Jan. 18 game between Simeon and Julian was limited. Police arrested Michael McNabb, 32, and Stephen Gilbert, 29, and charged them with Lawson's murder. It is unclear whether McNabb and Gilbert were at the game or whether the parking lot shooting was directly related to the fight in the gymnasium.
According to DNAinfo, CPS is reviewing the Chicago State University venue and security plan for a scheduled game between Simeon and the Whitney Young Magnet School.