MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. — Editors Note: 13 ON YOUR SIDE has redacted the name of the cheerleading coach due to the fact that they were not charged with any crimes.
Police are involved following an incident involving a coach with Reeths-Puffer Schools, the District revealed in a release.
Witnesses told 13 ON YOUR SIDE that the coach drove her car onto the sidewalk, speeding, nearly hitting a group of students at Reeths-Puffer High School Thursday.
Superintendent Steve Edwards later confirmed the employee involved was the District’s head competitive cheer coach.
Video taken by a bystander and later posted to Facebook appeared to show the confrontation in its final moments. The several-minute clip featured an adult in the foreground arguing with a group of middle-schoolers, pacing and glancing down at her phone seconds after witnesses claimed she attempted to ram them with her car.
The driver, witnesses said, also screamed obscenities and threatened to beat them.
“A lot of the parents are really upset,” Kristen Stewart related. “They are ready to press charges and pursue.”
Stewart, a parent of one of the athletes who witnessed the incident, said she found the school’s track coach comforting the group of athletes when she arrived shortly after the crowd dispersed.
“She assured me that he was okay and there had been an incident and before I had even gotten home, I got a message from the assistant principal… that he was already pursuing charges and that he had taken the matter in his hands,” Stewart said she was pleased at the school’s response. “The school has taken very, very quick action on this matter.”
“Me and a bunch of my friends, we were out waiting for a ride,” Lyric, Stewart’s son explained.
The eighth-grader was walking out of track practice with his teammates when he saw someone driving erratically in the group’s direction.
“She was driving around multiple times, speeding over speed bumps and then turning on like grass patches,” Lyric, a multi-sport athlete said the driver stopped feet from where he stood.
“She almost hit me and then drove back around… asked who was… bullying her son,” he related. “She said she’ll find out who it is. She’ll beat whoever it is.”
Reeths-Puffer Superintendent Steve Edwards told us the district had gotten law enforcement involved on account of the ‘egregiousness’ of the incident involving a member of the District’s coaching staff. He later confirmed the employee involved as the competitive cheer coach.
Looking into Smith’s work history, her Facebook page listed her as an assistant principal at Muskegon High School, which the district’s website confirmed. Muskegon Public Schools had not yet returned our request for comment at the time of publication.
“Really scary that she's working with kids,” Stewart reflected.
Still processing her son’s scary ordeal, Stewart suggested that if Smith believed her child was being bullied, as a school employee, she should have known the right way to go about addressing it.
“Did you know her son,” 13 ON YOUR SIDE questioned Lyric.
“No,” he replied.
Stewart said she wanted Smith fired from her coaching role and to face criminal charges.
“I don't feel like she should be pursuing her job with children, if this is the way she wants to act,” she said. “Very bizarre. It's been kind of unreal.”
The case is likely with Muskegon Township Police, though the department is closed on Fridays, so details concerning the criminal investigation remained sparse at the time of publication Friday.
Smith was placed on leave, Superintendent Edwards said, as was standard procedure.
Her status with Muskegon Public Schools was unclear.
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