A mother from South Carolina, Ruth Daughenbaugh, took to her Facebook to publicly call out Palmetto High School basketball coach Jill Ford for cursing at and belittling players.
She let everything out about Jill Ford, the varsity girls’ basketball coach at Palmetto High School.
According to Ruth, for the last three years, Jill Ford has been cursing at players, belittling them, tearing them down, and humiliating them in front of their teammates.
Ruth further revealed that her own 2 daughters have been victims of the behaviour and have gone through it, along with many other girls on the team.
She then revealed something that happened Monday night after the game.
Her daughter apparently spoke up and told the coach could not keep blaming the whole team for everything that went wrong.
This set Coach Ford off, and afterward in the locker room, she started cursing right at her.
According to Ruth, another player ran out of the locker room to tell her what was going on, so she walked in there herself.
Ruth said that the coach first denied using any bad language, then she finally admitted she had lost her temper and used bad language toward the girl.
The mother says that the parents and players have stayed quiet for almost 3 years because everyone is scared the girls will lose playing time or get treated even worse if they speak up.
She feels the coach uses her power over the kids in a way that is straight-up verbal and emotional abuse.
Ruth said she will no longer let her talk to her child that way
I will not allow this woman to verbally, mentally and emotionally abuse my child.
Ruth Daughenbaugh
What makes her especially angry is that the coach is still walking the sidelines like nothing had happened, and nobody at the school seems willing to hold her accountable.
On top of everything, the timing couldn’t be worse. Ruth’s oldest daughter is a senior this year. Because of everything that has taken place, she is missing out on chances to be seen by college scouts and will even miss her senior night, the one game where seniors are supposed to be honored with their families.
Further, she pointed out that if a parent ever spoke to the coach’s own child the way the coach speaks to these players, that parent would be thrown out of the school immediately.
Ruth says the more she thinks about it, the angrier she gets, especially when she imagines how fast the school would kick a parent out for talking to the coach’s own child the same way.
The more I sit on it and let it simmer the more infuriated I am for my kids!
Ruth Daughenbaugh
A whole lot of parents and former players backed Ruth up completely.
Katrina Perkins told her own story about the varsity volleyball coach at Palmettos High School, Gracie Williams, doing almost the same thing to her daughter, ruining a senior year, and still keeping the job even after the whole team complained.
Likewise, Brandi Morris said that is exactly why her kids will never go to any school in Anderson District One, because the schools protect staff no matter what.
Kelly Ann wrote that cursing at a child is never okay, and that is why she pulled her daughter out of club soccer and never looked back.
Savannah Lee Burrell expressed her disbelief, “She’s been reported and still coaching? wtf“
Charlene Rondeau flat-out said, “She shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near children!”
Jimmy Andrews kept coming back with strong words like, “Cursing is NEVER acceptable….never.” and “If the students can’t cuss…neither should teachers or coaches.”
On the other hand, some say cursing is just part of sports and builds mental toughness. Devon Kelly wrote:
I mean all of my coaches have cussed at me. Its called being mentally tough… Sounds like a good coach and they have weak minded players.. Just from a non soft person’s point of view lol.
Devon Kelly
Tez Greenlee kept it short:
Y’all raise y’all kids way to soft.. I’m with the coach..
Tez Greenlee
Whereas a few people tried to sit in the middle. Edward Williams looked up the team record on MaxPreps and said the program has been terrible for a decade and college coaches will be way harder, so the girls better get used to it.
Rachel Linda Daughenbaugh said there is no problem with certain cussing if the coach respects the kids and the kids respect the coach back, but Ford does not respect the girls at all.
