THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY TIM DAMICO, A FORMER GERMANTOWN HIGH SCHOOL ASSISTANT COACH.
I wanted to reach out to you since I believe that your organizations are the only ones that would care about my story and thank you for taking the time to read this.
I have been an assistant coach with the Germantown Girls swim and dive team for the last 3 years. This upcoming season was going to be my 4th. I grew up in Germantown and graduated from there myself in 2011. For the last 5 years I had been coaching club for 2 different private club organizations. In my time as a coach I have worked with kids and never once had a personal or professional complaint against me. On Thursday July 9th I shared a post to my Facebook page comparing the KKK to the BLM organization, not the statement “Black Lives Matter” because of course I agree with the statement, but the political organization is not something that I as a conservative can or will ever support.
Around 11:30 that day I got a voicemail from the athletic director (Sara Unurtl), at Germantown High School. I was at my full-time day job and unable to call her until later in the afternoon. When I did connect with her, she told me there was a post from me on social media going around that concerned them. She explained the post to me and I explained my stance on the post. She made it sound like there was some sort of outrage in the community about me and the post that I shared. Little did I know, this post was sent to each School board member and Principal Joel Farren from a single person that doesn’t even live in Germantown, they live in West Bend.
While I was talking with Sara, she mentioned other posts they saw on Facebook that I had shared or posted myself that concerned the district. Some of the posts were about the recent rioting and looting, most having firearm references as I am an avid and open second amendment supporter and concealed carrier. I always will advocate for responsible and legal ownership of firearms. I of course explained to her that I have NEVER had my firearm with me while on school property or at school related events. Regardless, she nor the HR representative that was also on the call seemed to really care. She told me that she did want to let me know they will need to look into this further and will be getting back to me as soon as they can.
A week later on July 16th Sara called me back. She did inform me that they will not be renewing my contract and I will no longer be a coach at Germantown High School. If I’m going top be honest, I was crushed, but not surprised given the world we live in today. I asked her to answer a question for me. I asked her if she had ever had any complaints from Athletes, Parents or the head coach, Lori, about my coaching. Sara told me that “You have always had great reviews and positive feedback, but we as a district need to be sure we are on the right side of history”. I came to the conclusion that I am being fired, not for my inability to be a great coach, but because my political stance doesn’t fit with the prevailing narrative. I’m a conservative gun owner who supports President Trump and I will never stop supporting what I believe just to save my job.
Sara asked me “What story would you like told when people ask why you wont be coaching anymore” I was a bit confused and asked her to clarify what she meant. She said that sometimes coaches would like to tell people they are leaving to focus more on their full time work or to be with their families. I said “No, if anyone asks you about why I am not coaching anymore, I expect you as an educator and school district employee to tell them the truth. You tell them that you fired me because of my political views, that is why I’m no longer coaching. You decided this, not me “. She seemed a little surprised by that and the conversation was basically over at that point.
I emailed Sara about 3 times before she finally sent me copies of the emails that I requested. From looking at the emails, I found that the district had decided they weren’t going to hire me back before I had even had a conversation with Sara about this. I will attach the PDF of those emails to this email for you to look at if you are interested.
It sickens me that these are the people in charge of our kids’ education. From all different angles they are telling kids that “you must believe this way, or you will lose your job”. “If you don’t believe in what we believe, then you are a racist.”
Given the world we live in today, I am not at all surprised that I lost a job with a school district considering that I am such a strong conservative and open about that publicly, but I did feel like I needed to make this known that the cancel culture is attacking more than just conservative TV or Talk show hosts. This culture is coming after anyone with an opposing view and we need to stop this.
I am more that willing to answer any questions that you might have for me about this and you are welcome to contact me however it is easiest for you.
Thank you for your time.
Tim Damico
