Canton City Schools aquatic director Mike Davidson is back on the job four months after he was the subject of an internal investigation and placed on paid leave, The Canton Repository reported Thursday.
Davidson was removed as the head coach of McKinley High School in November and placed on paid administrative leave for his role as Canton aquatics director as a result of an investigation that district officials began in September.
Public records obtained by The Canton Rep showed the investigation began after a parent emailed Davidson asking him why the CCS Swim Team Instagram account had liked provocative photos of female models and celebrities, including Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
Davidson returned from paid leave on Jan. 3 after receiving written reprimand for violating multiple district policies regarding use of social media, conflict of interest, administrator ethics and outside activities of administrators.
While he’s back in his role as aquatics director, a position he’s held since 2017, Davidson is no longer coaching at McKinley.
According to The Canton Rep, Davidson admitted to the parent that he was the sole administrator of the account, and apologized for his “horrible lapse in judgement.” He said he reported it to his supervisor and USA Swimming, an email exchange showed, and the Instagram account has since been deleted.
Canton City Schools Superintendent Jeff Talbert said Davidson didn’t realize he was hitting like on the photos while logged into the swim team account rather than his personal account, and added that Davidson didn’t intend to share the photos with the followers of the team account.
“The investigation concluded that while liking the photos in a manner that inadvertently allowed students to view the ‘likes’ was inappropriate for a coach of youth and high school sports, it did not warrant termination,” Talbert wrote. “Nevertheless, Davidson has been relieved of all coaching duties and is solely the aquatics manager for the district.”
Canton hired Scott Trahey, a McKinley physical education teacher, as the school’s head swimming coach in the interim after Davidson’s dismissal.
The district investigation also found that Davidson had been “blurring the lines” between his duties as the district’s aquatics director, the McKinley swim coach and his private employment with the CCS Swim Team, which trains out of McKinley High School.
The McKinley High School and CCS Swim Teams are separate, but have historically been coached by the same person.
Talbert also said in his statement that the administrators have restructured and separated the two entities, both financially and in terms of personnel.
A Jan. 3 letter from Assistant Superintendent Jason Dixon said that Davidson is prohibited from engaging in or having a financial interest in any activity that raises a reasonable question of conflict with his duties and responsibilities to the district, and is also prohibited from engaging in business that takes advantage of his relationship with student or parents of students.
Davidson is no longer the CCS Swim Team head coach. The team has hired Matthew Allen in the interim, according to the team’s website.
Davidson’s attorney responded, telling The Canton Rep that the district was to blame for its lack of specific procedures, guidelines and protocols. Read more here.
Sucks for the kids and Mike. He is an awesome coach! It looks like the new head coach has a relative as the board president?! Whats up with that?! I thought that they were cleaning up their acts.
Glad to see he’s back at his AD position, but he seriously lost his coaching duties over liking an online photo? The kids are gonna miss out on a great coach
Well that’s disappointing that he lost his coaching duties. Hopefully this release will repair any damage he had in his standing in the community.
This does bring up an interesting point where club teams are loosely affiliated with high school teams, and double dipping during scheduled high school practice.
Ohio has a rule where high school athletes cannot practice with their club teams once they have completed in a meet. They also cant do any USA meets between the first competition and the end of the season unless it’s a national level meet.
I don’t know if any other states have this restriction. So for example Missy Franklin would not have been able to compete for her high school team… Read more »
Swimmers can train club and compete HS in swimming in Ohio.
The last sentence – makes it sound either way… Hmm
I’ll take your word for it.
Non-Interscholastic Participation
2.1) A member of an interscholastic swimming and diving squad (any student who has participated in a regular
season/tournament contest) sponsored by the Board of Education shall not participate in a non-interscholastic
contest as an individual or a member of a team in the sport of swimming and diving during the school’s season
(Sports Regulation 7.2.2).
Lots of swimmers train with their club team and participate in meets with HS. As long as they don’t do club meets it’s allowed
Here is the easy way to manage the OHSAA rules related to club swimming. As soon as you compete in your first HS meet, you can no longer compete in any club/USA meets. Many HS teams do not have access to training facilities and kids train with club teams throughout the year. I believe you MUST have two meets in before a cut off date (sometime in January I believe) in order to be eligible for the post season.
If you watch OH swimming closely, you will notice that many of the top times from the SW region of the state don’t show up until mid January. In SW Oh it seems more customary to train with your club… Read more »
Missouri had this rule (not sure of the current status), and there isn’t much double dipping between club and high school coaches, so swimmers have to choose.
LOL, whoops.