Granite City coach fired after calling Black Lives Matter ‘criminals and terrorists’
Granite City School District 9 officials fired an assistant coach on the girls varsity girls basketball team for comments she made on her Facebook page about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Superintendent Stephanie Cann announced the district’s decision to “sever ties” with the coach, Christine Bailey, Wednesday night, one day after the first of the complaints from community members rolled in. She called Bailey’s comments — which included characterizing Black Lives Matter protesters as criminals and terrorists — “unprofessional and racially-charged.”
Bailey was employed as an assistant coach with the district for four years, and does not hold any other position in the district. Her husband, Eric Bailey, is a school resource police officer at Granite City 9.
Attempts to reach Bailey for comment were unsuccessful.
Mariah Harrison, a 2013 graduate of Granite City High School, whose Facebook post about Bailey’s comments garnered hundreds of shares and comments, said she was pleased with the district’s action.
“I’m extremely happy with Granite City finally making a change,” Harrison said Thursday. “I didn’t think anything would happen until the next board meeting.”
While the district announced it was removing Bailey from her position, it won’t be official until the board ratifies it at the next meeting on Aug. 25.
“Our Board and myself are totally committed to creating an inclusive and positive environment that respects all of its students and staff,” Cann wrote in a letter to the district community. “While we have provided bias training to all district administration, we can and will do more.”
Cann said in an email that the district had no further comment.
What sparked the complaints
Harrison made a post in a Granite City Yard Sale group on Facebook to sell extra Black Lives Matter shirts she had made for protests earlier in the summer. Bailey commented on the post to ask if it was “for real?” Harrison replied that Bailey should keep scrolling if she wasn’t interested.
Eventually, Bailey told Harrison her post was “disgusting” and “hate baiting,” before calling those involved with the Black Lives Matter movement “criminals and terrorists.” She also called George Floyd, a Black man killed in Minneapolis by Police Officer Derek Chauvin “the biggest piece of crap ever.”
Floyd’s death, and the video of Chauvin kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes while he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, sparked protests across the country this summer. Chauvin has been charged with murder and manslaughter.
“I don’t have to know [George Floyd] to call him a piece of crap,” Bailey wrote after another person in the thread pushed back against her comments. “Any criminal who endangers the lives of others is worthy of being called a lot worse. ... I too hope & pray the generations to come educate themselves to the Right & Wrong & will know the differences where this disgusting ‘movement’ has taken us.”
Harrison said she had never spoken to Bailey before the exchange. Bailey did not return requests for comment.
Harrison, along with some family members and friends, went to the school board meeting Tuesday night. They weren’t allowed into the meeting because of COVID-19 restrictions. The board receives emailed comments from citizens, however, which are due by 4 p.m. the day before the meeting.
Eventually, around 20 people — including a few young children — attended Wednesday’s protest. A few didn’t know Harrison personally, but saw her Facebook post with screenshots of her interaction with Bailey and decided to show up.
As of Thursday morning, the post had 557 shares.
About half of the protesters stayed in the parking lot, but the rest walked around the building to stand in the window of the room where the board was meeting. Many wore Black Lives Matter shirts. One woman had a mask on that said “I can’t breathe.”
Some members of the group members yelled to the board inside that “Black lives matter” and demanded that Bailey be fired. A police officer told them they could assemble, but could not disrupt the meeting.
“But they will hear us,” Harrison said outside the school.
Gayla Davis said she came because her daughter plays basketball and will start at the high school next year.
“I don’t want anyone coaching my kids that that thinks Black kids don’t matter,” she said.
Congressional candidate weighs in
Thursday night, former Illinois Republican candidate for senate Peggy Hubbard posted a 10-minute video urging her viewers to contact Granite City 9 — and Cann in particular — to tell the district they were wrong to fire Bailey, who Hubbard called a friend.
“I don’t care if they have it in their so-called bylaws that you cannot speak out,” Hubbard said in the video. “Where is it written that your constitutional rights should be surrendered if you take a job with an employer? ... That’s a communism view.”
Hubbard did not respond to requests for further comment.
“This is not the end of it,” Hubbard said. “... No one should be fired because of their political views. No one. That is not right.”
Granite City 9 has received calls and emails about the firing, Cann confirmed via email.
“I have had several phone calls and emails expression opinions on both sides,” she said. “Some have been discourteous and heated, some just expressing opinions in a respectful matter.”
In a since-deleted post, Hubbard shared a screenshot of Harrison’s Facebook page. Harrison said people started sharing her phone number, pictures of her parents, boyfriend and son, and links to her craft business in the comments.
“Yesterday, when I originally saw her post, I did get a little overwhelmed,” Harrison said, adding that she got harassing phone calls. “... As the hours went on, it just infuriated me.”
This story was originally published August 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Granite City coach fired after calling Black Lives Matter ‘criminals and terrorists’."
