Coach resigns over inappropriate message accidentally sent to student

NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A popular high school baseball and football coach said he was forced to resign after admitting he accidentally sent an inappropriate text to a student.
 
Channel 2's Mike Petchenik obtained documents from Fulton County Schools that show Cambridge High School's Miles Martin admitted to sending the text to a student, but that he meant to send it to a friend with the same first name.

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Channel 2 Action News is not reprinting the contents of the text because they are not appropriate for our audience.

Fulton County School spokeswoman, Donna Lowry, told Petchenik Martin resigned, but that the district would have no comment on the personnel issue.

A fellow teacher reported hearing about the content of the text and a human resources investigation was initiated for allegations of unprofessional conduct.
 
"Fulton County expects professional behavior from their employees at all times," an investigator wrote in the document Petchenik obtained. "Mr. Martin displayed poor judgment in sending the text message."

The investigator upheld the allegations against Martin claiming “he failed to report the incident to school administration and follow the FCS Employee Handbook on private social media. Mr. Martin exhibited unprofessional behavior."

Martin sent Petchenik an e-mailed statement about what happened:

I made an error when sending a personal and private message to a trusted friend; to be clear it was an error and not an error in judgment that resulted in the message being delivered to a student.  I immediately communicated my error to individual and he acknowledged that the message wasn't meant for him.  I absolutely regret my error, have accepted responsibly for it and apologized to the family involved and thank them for acceptance and understanding.

While fully cooperating with FCS during the inquiry, the Chief Talent Officer made clear I could speak to no one else and that he would make my path to a fair hearing of the facts take months if not longer.  I made an error, I did nothing wrong, yet I saw no path to a fair decision without it taking months and costing thousands of dollars so I made the personal decision to resign my position, a position I dearly love.

To the Bear Family stay with it "All In All The Time", I miss you every day,  once a Bear always a Bear!

A long-time friend and booster of the Cambridge program told Petchenik he believes Martin got a raw deal.

“Coach Martin is a good role model.  He’s a young guy,” said John Schafer.  “The kids relate to him.”

While Schafer said he doesn’t condone the content of what Martin wrote in the text, he said Martin shouldn’t be punished for it.

“It was certainly not designed nor intended to reach a student,” he said.  “He is moving on.  He’s being as strong as he possibly can.  He’s devastated.”

Petchenik obtained a letter from the family of the teen who received the text.  They sent the letter to Fulton County Superintendent Jeff Rose.

"We can all agree that Coach Martin never intended to send this to our son,” the letter reads.  "My wife and I do not feel this text shows the type of person Coach Martin is and that his mistake should not affect his ability to coach and teach our boys.”

Cox Media Group