Friday, 29 March 2024

School officials investigate allegations of student progress report theft

Editor's note: It is important to make clear that Ronnie Campos Jr., mentioned in the following story as coach of the Clear Lake High School wrestling team, is not to be confused with his father, Ron Campos Sr., owner of Campos Casuals and coach of Upper Lake's wrestling team. Ron Campos Sr., a respected longtime wrestling coach, is not in any way involved with this story.


KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A Kelseyville High School wrestler’s progress report is at the center of a controversy in which it’s alleged that the coach of a rival wrestling team took the document and used it to allege, falsely, that the student was ineligible to compete.

The incident in question surrounds the alleged theft of a weekly grade progress report for Kelseyville High School junior Adryan Segura from the school’s wrestling room last week.

Lake County News received permission from Segura and his mother, Lia Lionetti, to name him in this story.

Ronnie Campos Jr., Clear Lake High School’s wrestling coach, is alleged to have taken the document during a practice session on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 9.

The document incorrectly stated that Segura had a 1.8 grade point average, not his correct GPA of 2.0, and allegedly was circulated in an attempt to establish that Segura is not eligible to complete.

Campos told Lake County News on Thursday that he could not comment on the matter because he was under orders from Clear Lake High School not to do so.

“I definitely have a version of the story,” he said, adding, “I’m going to respect what I’ve been asked to do.”

Lakeport Unified School District Superintendent Erin Smith Hagberg said she could not comment on any personnel matter.

Rob Brown, Kelseyville High School’s wrestling coach, said he reported the document’s removal from the wrestling room to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

He said Deputy Cynthia Radoumis is investigating the matter and picked up the progress report – which reportedly was recovered from Campos by Clear Lake High School officials and returned to Kelseyville High – as evidence.

Lionetti said her rights and those of her son have been violated, especially when it comes to confidentiality. She’s filed a formal complaint with the Lakeport Unified School District and is considering taking legal action.

When she filed the complaint, she said Hagberg apologized to her, said Campos was on administrative leave and that the district had acted immediately to address the incident.

Lionetti said the document that allegedly was taken was a weekly progress report she consented to have the school give to her son’s coaches so they can keep up-to-date on his grades and make sure he remains eligible for competition.

She said Campos also has slandered her son, who wrestles in the 147-pound weight class, by telling people that the young man’s wrestling wins were attributable not to skill but to steroids.

“It’s very poor sportsmanship, it’s very unprofessional, with no integrity at all,” she said.

Lionetti also believes it was an attempt to keep her son – who has been competing as a wrestler since sixth grade – from wrestling in this weekend’s Coastal Mountain Conference League Finals, the prelude to the North Coast Section finals.

Brown and Kelseyville High School Principal Matt Cockerton both said they’ve been informed that the matter is set to be discussed at the Lakeport Unified School District’s next board of trustees meeting.

Cockerton said Kelseyville High has been in discussions with Clear Lake High officials regarding the alleged incident.

“We’re confident that they’ve taken care of whatever they need to take care of on their end,” Cockerton said, adding that the two schools have a good working relationship.

Brown said he also believes Clear Lake High will handle the matter properly. “Their integrity is too high to allow somebody like this to discredit them.”

Document allegedly taken, circulated

Brown first reported the matter via a lengthy e-mail to Cockerton on Friday, Feb. 10, after he received a call earlier in the day from Tom Powers, a Lakeport Unified School District board member and the parent of a Clear Lake High wrestler.

Brown said Powers asked him about Kelseyville High’s eligibility policy and then specifically asked about 17-year-old Segura.

At that point, Brown said he knew immediately what had happened, as a copy of Segura’s progress report – which stated incorrectly that his GPA was 1.8, not 2.0, based on a simple calculation error – was on a table in the wrestling room, where Campos had been the night before.

Brown said Powers confirmed to him that Campos had taken the document. By that time the progress report already had been distributed publicly, which Brown said he confirmed through a phone call to North Coast Sections Assistant Commissioner Bri Niemi.

Brown believes the alleged action by Campos was a “desperate attempt” to overturn a match between the two teams on Feb. 8 in which Kelseyville beat Clearlake 37-33 – they also beat Lower Lake 45-36 in the same match – and moved another step closer to the Coastal Mountain Conference League finals, scheduled for this weekend.

Brown said in more than 30 years of coaching he’s never witnessed such a violation of a student’s rights and dignity as he has in Segura’s case, and called Campos’ behavior “inexcusable.”

In his Feb. 10 e-mail to Cockerton Brown suggests that Campos should be terminated, banned from Kelseyville Unified property, that he should have to return to the district the item he allegedly took and write a formal apology to Segura.

Lionetti said Brown was the first person to contact her about the issue. By the time he had, the document already had been circulated publicly, including on the Internet.

She credited Brown with taking immediate action and working to defend her son in the face of the unfair and inaccurate accusations that arose following the Feb. 9 incident.

Student was always eligible under school policy

According to Segura’s progress report, released to Lake County News with the permission of Segura’s family, he has a 2.0 grade point average. Included among his grades is one F grade.

Cockerton told Lake County News that the school’s policy is that students may participate in sports if they have a 2.0 GPA or above.

Even with an F grade in one class, based on district guidelines Segura is eligible to compete, and Cockerton confirmed the winning wrestler is still on the Kelseyville High team.

That’s because the district does not have a “no F” policy, said Cockerton.

Previously the district had barred students with F grades from participating in sports, but Cockerton said the board of trustees changed the policy last summer.

That move was made in response to a situation in which a student athlete failed an AP course, but was doing well in other courses. Cockerton said the district didn’t want to penalize students who were succeeding in some areas but struggling in others.

As for who determines eligibility, “Coaches have nothing to do with it,” but rather receive an eligibility list from the athletic director who works with administration to make the final determinations, said Cockerton.

Cockerton said the school uses software to calculate the GPAs, but it has a glitch that affected not just Segura’s progress report but those of other students as well.

“When we ran eligibility, we had several athletes that came up below 2.0 that we had to recalculate for whatever reason,” said Cockerton. “That’s where this whole thing started.”

Cockerton added of Segura, “He had a 2.0 from the get-go.”

Brown had an ineligible wrestler a few years ago, and he brought the matter forward himself, Cockerton said, adding that the school proceeded with sanctions.

Cockerton said the North Coast Section is pretty specific about how to handle ineligible players. In the previous case, “We had to notify everybody,” and that would have been the case had ineligibility been an issue here, he said.

Lionetti said her son is doing fine in the wake of the recent controversy.

“He knows his coach would never let him wrestle without the grades,” said Lionetti, adding that Brown carefully monitors his wrestlers’ grades, even to the point of having a recent Saturday study session to make sure all of them were up-to-date on their homework.

She said she has received outstanding community support as the matter has unfolded.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

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