LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — After a decade of volunteer coaching at Palo Verde High School, David Meng said he was shown the door in late January by district officials who informed him his volunteer badge had been revoked just weeks after the school named him head coach.
"Here I am a month later," he said, "after 10 years of volunteering my time and giving back to these kids, where I can't even get a response. The only response I did receive is that it's in CCSD's best interest to move forward and the decision stands."
Meng said he'd only been told while being escorted off the baseball field that a social media account had been involved in his dismissal.
His attorneys with Borg Law Group sent the district a letter Tuesday demanding a full report on his termination.
The letter reads, in part:
"...Multiple times, he brought to the school's administration attention that there were phony online accounts being built and his personal online accounts were being hacked for 2.5 years? All documents were provided to the board. Please, see sequence of events along with the online accounts that were made up."
Meng gave Channel 13 the same catalogue of accusations against him he provided to the district.
The accusations came from largely from now-inactive anonymous social media accounts and anonymous emails sent to school and district officials, claiming he'd mishandled parent funding and donations and abused children.
"Unequivocally false, and I have two years' documentation that was brought to CCSD multiple times," Meng said. "Quite frankly, I've never had a traffic ticket in 10 years."
His assistant coaches and several parents of kids he's coached rallied to Meng's defense Friday.
Tony Bender has had two kids under Meng's care for five years.
"It's frightening to think that something like that could happen in this day and age. Anonymous," Bender said.
Meng's fellow assistant coach for seven years, Manny Abeyta, spoke highly of him, as well.
"I've been coaching in this town for 35 years," Abeyta said. "Seen a lot of coaches in this town, I've coached with a lot of coaches, and I've never coached with anybody finer than Coach Meng."
Gregg Jefferies, a former Major League Baseball player, said he would continue to have his kids coached by Meng outside of the CCSD system.
"He's a teacher, and that's why I'm still with him. I'm still here," Jefferies said, "because if I believed any of this, I wouldn't be here. My kids are still in this program."
CCSD officials said they couldn't comment on personnel issues or pending litigation and, instead, pointed us to the district's volunteer safety programs.
"Quite frankly, at this point, I'm fighting for the next volunteer," Meng said.
The coach said he would like for the district to install an investigation policy giving volunteers the chance to appeal before termination.
"They're not protected," he said. "They're a sitting duck for the first anonymous email."
Meng said he's now shifting his focus away from CCSD coaching and would, instead, be working to bring the national club organization USA Prime Baseball to Nevada for the first time.
