Dueling tort claims filed this week pit Lincoln boys basketball coach Heather Seely-Roberts and the parents of several of her players against each other, with each side accusing the other of undermining the program.
Parents of four students claim that Seely-Roberts has retaliated against their children by keeping them off the team after parents complained about the coach’s decisions. Meanwhile, Seely-Roberts claims that several parents are harassing her because their children didn’t make the varsity team.
Seely-Roberts was hired by Lincoln in 2021 and is both the boys basketball coach and a physical education teacher at the school.
She is the only female coach of a boys varsity sports team in Oregon’s Class 6A and part of her complaint is she is being treated differently than male coaches.
In three years, Seely-Roberts has coached Lincoln to a 58-25 record. The Cardinals won the Portland Interscholastic League and finished third in the state in the 2022-23 season.
In the first legal shot on Thursday, parents of four Lincoln students filed a tort claim accusing Seely-Roberts of using homophobic slurs, making racist comments and retaliating against players who played offseason club basketball for another coach and players whose parents had previously complained about her coaching. The claim is an announcement of an intent to sue.
The Oregonian/OregonLive is not using the names of the students (who are identified in the tort claim by initials) or the names of their parents to protect the privacy of the students involved.
Seely-Roberts, through a tort claim filed by lawyer Steve Lindsey, said that the constant complaints and Thursday’s tort claim were a way for parents to attack the coach after their teenagers failed to make the Cardinals’ varsity lineup.
“This family appears unhappy that their student did not secure a position on the varsity basketball team and is now retaliating against Heather Seely-Roberts by filing false complaints against her and trying to get her removed from the basketball program at Lincoln High School,” Lindsey wrote.
In the parents’ tort claim, Portland lawyer Kevin Brague writes that Seely-Roberts used a homophobic slur on two occasions in June: once in making a comment about a student at Lincoln High School who had pierced ears, and once while transporting players in her car for a team camp in Bend. The claim also adds that on May 29, Seely-Roberts approached a group of Black students and said, “You guys doing gang signs?”
Seely-Roberts, through an email from lawyer Ross Denison that was sent to Willamette Week on Thursday, denied these accusations.
“There are too many fabrications in the tort claim notice to address here, but suffice it to say, it is more of the same baseless accusations from these families who want to believe anything other than the possibility that their children were not qualified to make varsity,” Denison wrote.
There were also a number of allegations from parents that Seely-Roberts retaliated against student-athletes who played for a rival offseason club coach. The tort claim alleges that in June, Seely-Roberts saw a group of players talking to that coach and immediately moved them to junior varsity while promoting three “smaller, less experienced players” to take their varsity spots.
Parents also voiced concerns in the tort claim after Seely-Roberts made her Instagram account private (a move they claimed was blocking a means of communication to parents), allegedly lied to a student about the date of basketball tryouts and allegedly cut three players after their parents complained to the school about her.
Earlier this year, Portland Public Schools conducted an investigation into many of the same allegations following a formal complaint from the same group of parents. The district’s findings were largely inconclusive, noting that they did find some retaliation, but took no disciplinary action.
The PPS investigation starts with a meeting in January 2023, where Seely-Roberts and an assistant coach approached a player who was concerned about the actions of a former assistant basketball coach at Lincoln High School, who they say had joked about potentially drugging the student’s burrito.
The family of the student claimed this was a meeting meant to intimidate the student for raising concerns about the coach — who had since been removed from the Lincoln basketball program. District investigators said there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude that the meeting was intended to intimidate the student.
Also inconclusive was a parent’s complaint that Seely-Roberts was leaving them out of team emails. The district said it’s unclear whether Seely-Roberts left certain people off of email lists or made an unintentional mistake.
The former assistant coach that the student issued complaints about also attended an offseason basketball event in June 2023. The parents alleged that the former coach was allowed back by Seely-Roberts despite a player on the team feeling unsafe around the coach. The district’s investigation disputes this, stating that the former coach was not there because of an invitation from Seely-Roberts and was told to leave the campus.
The district found that Seely-Roberts showed retaliatory behavior, including asking parents and students to follow a “chain of command” system of communication where they talk with her directly instead of going to the principal or athletic director to voice concerns first.
The district stated that Seely-Roberts pointed out that some parents in the past had not followed this plan and it caused some issues. The district stated that forcing families to follow this plan (or potentially be removed from the team) could be seen as retaliatory behavior. The district added that the presentation left a certain family feeling called out, which also could be seen as retaliatory behavior.
Late in October, Seely-Roberts submitted a formal complaint with Portland Public Schools, demanding an investigation into one of the families that filed the tort claim.
Seely-Roberts claims that this family has been harassing her after their son did not make varsity. She also claims that the family’s ties with PPS administration (including being friends with Chief Human Resources Officer Sharon Reese) has made it so the school district has both “failed to take appropriate action to protect Heather Seely-Roberts from harassing and disparaging behavior” and “perpetuating the false narratives” claimed by the parents.
Seely-Roberts is asking that PPS look into a mass email sent anonymously to Lincoln staff members and parents that Seely-Roberts claims was an act of bullying by one of the families who are a part of the tort claim.
“The PPS ADMIN is allowing Roberts to continue coaching, regardless of the evidence that proves that Roberts is unfit to continue in a coaching role at LHS,” reads an email signed by “Concerned LHS parent” which Seely-Roberts’ tort claim indicates was written by a parent who is part of the tort claim against her and the district. “I have repeatedly asked what steps PPS is taking to prevent additional harassment, intimidation and retaliation by Roberts going forward and have not received any communication or action plans that will deter or prevent Roberts’s ongoing abusive behaviors to my son or other students at Lincoln HS.”
Seely-Roberts also wants the district to notify the family that communications like this will not be tolerated and restrict them sending future communications.
Seely-Roberts’ complaint to the district details an incident at an Oct. 9 meeting, where Portland Interscholastic League Athletic Director Marshall Haskins met with Lincoln parents to get the parents’ feelings on Seely-Roberts after complaints were filed. During that meeting, one of the parents allegedly “intimidated, harassed and confronted other parents who turned out to support Heather Seely-Roberts,” the complaint reads.
The coach’s complaint includes accounts from several Lincoln parents who were there to talk to Haskins. One parent (who is one of the parents represented in the tort claim against Seely-Roberts and the district) was volatile toward others in attendance, the complaint alleges.
“At some point as more parents arrived, she stepped into the outside lobby and began yelling and screaming the ‘F word’ while on the phone to someone (likely her husband who showed up a short time later.) She appeared to be increasingly agitated,” reads an email from the mother of a former Lincoln basketball player, which was attached in the coach’s complaint to the district. “She created a very uncomfortable and hostile scene with her antics and volatile behavior in the school office in front of about 7 parents and several staff members. There were students in the adjoining foyer to the school, as well.”
Seely-Roberts also claims that PPS is violating Title IX as she is the only coach in the district who is required by the school to operate open gyms under Haskins’ supervision, and the Lincoln tryouts were supervised by Lincoln athletic director Matt Wiles.
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— Nik Streng covers high school sports in Oregon. Reach him at nstreng@oregonian.com or @NikStreng
