More student complaints emerge against N-Y gym teacher
By Jim Phillips
Athens NEWS Senior Writer
March 27, 2008
With two sets of parents from the Nelsonville-York City School District already suing a gym teacher for allegedly bullying or roughing up their children, a past student and the father of another student have now filed affidavits alleging similar mistreatment by the same teacher.
In January, Daniel and Melissa Maccabee of Nelsonville sued the district and elementary gym teacher Anthony Mollica, claiming he had yelled at their 9-year-old son and shoved him so hard he fell into a wall.
Another set of parents, Tia and Robert Chubb, parents of a 6-year-old in N-Y Elementary, complained to the district late last year about Mollica’s allegedly yelling into their son’s face. The teacher then sued them for defamation in Athens County Common Pleas Court. The Chubbs have filed a counterclaim in the suit.
Now two former Nelsonville-York students have filed affidavits in the Maccabee and Chubb cases, claiming that they underwent similar mistreatment at Mollica’s hands when they were in school.
Neither Mollica’s attorney, Gerald Mollica, nor N-Y Supt. Ted Bayat could be reached for comment.
In the first affidavit, 19-year-old Corey Woolum of Nelsonville stated that he read about the lawsuits involving Mollica in a local newspaper.
“I was upset to read that Mr. Mollica was suing the parents of a child for reporting an incident of abuse that was very similar to an incident I had with Mr. Mollica when he was my phys-ed instructor,” the document said.
In 1998 or 1999, according to Woolum, he was in either the third or fourth grade in N-Y Elementary School. While Woolum was playing dodgeball in gym class, he alleged, Mollica, “apparently believing that I was not following instructions, became extremely irate and began screaming wildly at me. Mr. Mollica then threw a dodgeball very hard directly at me hitting me in the arm.”
The affidavit alleged that Mollica then grabbed Woolum by the shirt collar and threw him “violently into a wall where he continued to berate me for some time. Mr. Mollica then threw me to the ground forcefully by the collar of my shirt,” causing Woolum to scrape his left knee. Woolum reported that his mother called a school official the next day to complain.
The second affidavit is by James M. Bahl, Jr., of Nelsonville, who described himself as the father of a fourth-grade girl in the district.
Bahl alleged an incident occurred two years ago when his daughter was in second grade. When he came home from work, he claimed, he found the girl visibly upset. The girl allegedly recounted an incident that day involving Mollica, in which she said she was “sitting in phys-ed class talking to friends when Mr. Mollica abruptly jerked her to her feet.”
Bahl wrote that the next week, he visited the elementary school to talk to the principal about the incident. Though the principal jotted down notes while they spoke, Bahl reported, “To date, I do not know if Mr. Mollica was ever disciplined for this incident involving my daughter or whether the matter was ever investigated.”
Both the district and the Nelsonville Police have looked into previous parent complaints about Mollica’s alleged treatment of students, and found insufficient basis to bring charges against the teacher. The district has reprimanded him and placed him on paid leave while it investigates whether further discipline is called for.
The teachers’ union in the district is contesting the reprimand and the leave.
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