Pittsburg Superintendent emails additional statement, early Tuesday morning, defends Pittsburg band, blames Deer Valley football coaches
By Allen Payton
Attached to an email received Tuesday morning at 1:03 AM, with the subject line “RE: Joint Press Release from Antioch and Pittsburg Unified School Districts,” from the email address of Pittsburg Superintendent Janet Schulze, but not on district letterhead nor signed by her, was an “Additional statement from PUSD Superintendent” defending the Pittsburg High School band and blaming the Deer Valley High School varsity football team coaches, for the incident before last Friday night’s game.
The AdditionalStatementfromPUSDSuperintendent reads as follows:
I support everything in the joint statement and our collaboration with Antioch as we continue the investigation. I do want to offer my additional individual assessment and clarification. I want to be clear that the PHS Band had no part in the miscommunications. They did a terrific performance, as usual! I commend the Band for their professionalism and talent.
It is my opinion that the DVHS coaches used poor judgment in running drills that went near and into the Band’s formation while the Band was playing. This created a situation that was potentially dangerous.
Janet Schulze
However, according to the rules for North Coast Section (NCS) football games, in section “305H Code of Ethics for Bands and Other Support Groups,” subsection “f.” it states “Bands, song girls, entertainment, etc., should never interfere with the officials, the practicing teams, or the playing of the game.” That’s the argument being made by those defending the football team’s actions.
A phone call to and emails were sent to Schulze asking if she was the author of the statement, and if so was she was pressured by her Board members, if she thought it undermined the joint press release with Antioch Superintendent Dr. Don Gill, and if she’s aware of the NCS rules, and why she sent it out without her signature, not on district letterhead and at that time of the morning.
12:52 PM UPDATE: In a phone call from Schulze’s Executive Assistant Barbara Jones, she confirmed that the statement was from Schulze.
In an email from Dr. Schulze, at 1:13 p.m., she stated “It was not at all meant to undermine the joint statement that the two districts worked on. I stated that as the first sentence in order to hopefully make that clear. I also informed Dr. Gill of the two items I would be sharing. I was not pressured by any Board members.”
10:36 PM UPDATE: In a further response to the questions, Schulze stated via email, Tuesday afternoon:
“Pittsburg High School’s Marching Band has a long history of performing pre-game at home games. Both home and visiting audiences have enjoyed the performances for years. It was also our Senior Night. It is not uncommon for the visiting team to be warming up during a Band performance. The Band Director had every expectation to believe the visiting team was aware before bringing out the Band. This is not a student athlete issue, nor is it a Band member issue. It is an adult miscommunication and judgment issue. We are in working in partnership with Antioch to learn from this and move forward together. We have always worked well and collaboratively with Antioch and do not want this one instance to characterize the students or communities.”
No response was provided as to why her additional statement was sent in the manner and at the time it was.
the attachments to this post:
AdditionalStatementfromPUSDSuperintendent
AdditionalStatementfromPUSDSuperintendent
It was a no malice intended, miscommunication, misunderstanding mistake. One of the teams should have taken the high road and backed off the field. Sometimes it is more important to keep the peace, than to be right. Antioch and Pittsburg alike, should always with due diligence AVOID any bad media. We want to be regarded as beautiful, safe, prosperous.