Emails Show Riverbend Parent Involving School Board

Newly unearthed emails show Phelps, Twigg, Taylor, and a swim coach outside of Riverbend High School copied on emails beginning in mid-December.

by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT

The parent at the center of unrest plaguing the Riverbend High School swim team continued to involve the School Board, school division leadership, and a coach from an outside year-round swim program in complaints about “inappropriate behavior” on the part of the Riverbend coaches, after acknowledging that the behavior had stopped.

New emails received through Freedom of Information Act requests for correspondence between the parent, Riverbend administration, division administration, and School Board members show that the parent included School Board members Lisa Phelps and Kirk Twigg and superintendent Mark Taylor on correspondence asking that assistant coach Theo Marcus be “held responsible” for allegedly violating school policy by communicating with the parent’s child via text message.

In a previous story, the Advance detailed Marcus’s mentoring of the student with the parent’s knowledge and support, until a change in the team’s leadership model apparently angered the parent. There is no existing school division policy prohibiting coaches from communicating directly with students via text message.

The parent appears to first bring Twigg and Phelps into the correspondence on December 17, by forwarding them an email that head swim coach Rachael Adriani sent to swim parents, reiterating her support of Marcus.

Adriani told swim parents that Marcus had taken a leave of absence from coaching because of “complaints made by a parent,” but did not name the parent.

In the email to Twigg, the parent wrote, “I have tried to graciously handle this situation discreetly and at the lowest level but these two coaches have made it worse.”

With the email, the parent also forwarded a December 14 email to Riverbend’s athletic director, Jesse Lohr, and principal Xavier Downs, in which the parent stated that she had learned that a meeting had been scheduled with school administration and swim team parents.

“I will not be attending the meeting,” the parent wrote. “I can’t and won’t speak for anyone but myself and what (my child) has experienced and don’t feel further dialogue is necessary since the inappropriate behavior with my child has stopped.”

The meeting had been requested by Adriani and Marcus, who met with Lohr on December 11 to inform him that the parent had stated to both coaches that “a parent or parents” were prepared to make formal complaints about Marcus.

The coaches asked that the situation be addressed through an open meeting.

Lohr responded to the parent on December 14 and said that he and Downs would discuss the matter the following day.

The parent wrote back to Lohr about half an hour later and asked that the situation be handled “discreetly.”

“I do not wish to expose my child or my family to any backlash if Theo was to know I am ‘one of the parents’ that doesn’t see his vision for success (how he justifies his behavior),” the parent wrote.

The FOIA requests do not include a response from Twigg or Phelps to the parent’s December 17 email. Whatever meeting was initially scheduled apparently did not happen, as Marcus referred to in two December 18 emails to swim team parents.

In the first email, which Marcus sent at 7:30 a.m., he reiterated that he was requesting an open meeting so the parent, whom he named, could “bring forward evidence of information concerning (parents who) [the parent] claims, (are) collecting information to bring a formal complaint against me.”

Marcus said that he had notified the school “of my intent to resign if the forum for parents that was set for today does not take place at 5:30 as planned.”

“I understand that school officials would like to cancel that meeting,” he continued. “I object to that cancellation because, in my view, this Program’s stakeholders deserve transparency, deserve traction and an environment free of foolishness and menace, and deserve to hear from their coaches.”

Marcus wrote to swim parents again at 5:54 p.m. on December 18, confirming that the forum he requested had not occurred.

“Worse, the administration has not had the courtesy of stating its own position, on the record, that (the parent’s) statements were false, injurious and made with improper intent,” Marcus wrote.

Downs, the Riverbend principal, had told Marcus in a text message on December 16 that “My position is that there isn’t anything substantial to any complaint and RHS is happy to have you.”

On December 19, Adriani, the head coach, emailed another request for an open meeting to Downs, Lohr, and swim team parents. This time, a meeting was scheduled for December 20.

The parent replied to Downs’s email notifying swim parents of the meeting. In the message, which went to all swim parents, the parent said, “We are confused as to how our identities got leaked when we have remained quiet throughout this private matter … We just wanted … for the matter to be handled discreetly to avoid any backlash.”

About an hour before the December 20 meeting, the parent emailed a list of “concerns” to the school division’s coordinator of school safety and security, Marshall Keene, copying superintendent Mark Taylor as well as Phelps, Downs and Lohr.

The parent listed among their concerns, “that Theo Markus (sic) has not been held responsible for violating school policy in regards to personal communication between student and faculty.”

“The extensive volume of messages are alarming, but (Adriani) keeps telling parents Theo has done nothing wrong and has not been told he did anything wrong,” the parent wrote.

The parent attended the December 20 meeting via Zoom. That meeting ended with police being called to the school to respond to “a verbal dispute between Xavier Downs (principal) and Joseph Adriani (coaches husband),” according to the report from the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office.

One of the swim parents called the police “to report (Downs’) mannerism,” according to the report. “All parties state there were no threats to fight … No assault occurred … No crime was alleged or committed.”

The morning after the meeting, the parent reached out to Tyler Wyatt, then the head coach of the year-round Tsunami Swimming program, which is not affiliated with Riverbend High School, copying Downs, Lohr, Keene and Phelps, to ask why their student had been temporarily suspended from the Tsunami swim team.

Wyatt is no longer listed as a member of Tsunami’s coaching staff. The Advance reached out to Wyatt via email to request an interview, but did not hear back.

On December 29, a little more than a week after the December 20 meeting, the parent emailed Lohr, copying Keene and Taylor, to thank him for allowing her to participate via Zoom and offer to provide a witness statement in support of Downs, who was placed on administrative leave on December 21.

“We saw and heard everything and don’t understand why Mr. Downs was put on leave when he was racially targeted and then physically assaulted,” the parent wrote. “He had every right to feel threatened and wanting to flee the hostile environment… We pray and hope the school division does right by Mr. Downs.”

On January 25, Downs charged Cory Ellis, one of the swim parents, with misdemeanor assault and battery, according to information provided by the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office.

Downs was “recommended for dismissal” by Taylor—who is also currently on administrative leave—on January 21, according to a letter Downs shared with the Advance.