Tulsa High School Basketball Coach Is Suspended

A longtime Tulsa high-school basketball coach is kicked off the job and nobody's saying why. Booker T. Washington coach Nate Harris has been put on a paid suspension and the district is recommending

Wednesday, December 6th 2006, 4:12 pm

By: News On 6

A longtime Tulsa high-school basketball coach is kicked off the job and nobody's saying why. Booker T. Washington coach Nate Harris has been put on a paid suspension and the district is recommending that he be fired.

Coach Harris was notified about it on Monday. A public hearing on the matter is set for January 11th.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says Coach Harris has been at Booker T. Washington for 25 years now. He's won 10 state titles as boys basketball coach. That's tied for the most in state history.

So there's certainly no arguing with his success. As for why he's been suspended, that's very hush-hush. The school and the school district gave a flat no-comment. But we also talked to Steve Stockley the head of the teacher's union, which will be helping Coach Harris with his legal counsel.

Stockley said he couldn't go into detail, but he says the only reason he's seen has to do with a minor procedural matter. And he says there's no way it merits a firing.

In fact, he doubts this will reach the hearing. He says the union's lawyers will talk with the district's lawyers. He thinks that cooler heads will prevail and this will be resolved without a hearing.

The News on 6 did try to reach Coach Harris but we didn't hear back from him.