California teacher fired after ‘playful’ wrestling with students, he says

Clovis schools’ former orchestra director says he was put on administrative leave this year and later fired after what he says was a playful interaction with his students and not a “fight club” as the school administration alleges.

Michael Chang, who was orchestra director for Granite Ridge Intermediate and Clovis North High School, said his class was relocated out of the orchestra room into a regular classroom on Friday, Jan. 12. While not in their usual space, Chang said some of the students began playfully roughhousing.

The students egged Chang on, he told The Bee, encouraging him to practice some martial arts moves. Wanting to bond with his students, Chang says he accepted.

All of a sudden, Chang said a student managed to flip him over their shoulder, forcing Chang’s body to land on his back against the floor. The student landed on top of Chang, face up. Then, Chang held the student in a choke hold, “for no longer than one second,” he said. They separated, stood up, and called it a friendly match, according to the teacher.

Almost a week later, Chang said he was intercepted in a hallway and escorted to Clovis North’s principal’s office for questioning about a report submitted by a community member. Chang said he was immediately placed on administrative leave without prior indication of it on Thursday morning, Jan. 18.

“I was not notified by email, text or phone call,” he said. “No emails and no communication prior to the meeting (with administrators).”

Some community members say Chang’s punishment seems out of proportion and started a petition to collect signatures, asking Clovis Unified School District to reinstate him. According to Chang’s retelling of the events, he was verbally told he was not getting rehired for the next school year before the school board voted not to renew temporary and provisional employees’ contracts on Feb. 21.

Chang says that he and the administration were at odds with Chang because of disagreements between his orchestra class and the schools’ band program, inclining him to believe his firing is also related to those tensions.

Chang alleges he is being denied due process because he did not receive a letter of reprimand until Friday, Feb. 2. – two weeks after he was placed on administrative leave – and after being asked to go into questioning at the district’s offices on Tuesday, Jan. 23. A few days later, Chang said he was told he would not be rehired for the 2024-2025 school year.

The Bee obtained a copy of Chang’s Feb. 2 letter of reprimand, which states Clovis North’s learning director Stacie Oldham conducted an investigation into what happened in Chang’s classroom and talked to students. The letter states a “fight club” occurred, where students wrestled each other, a student was asked by Chang to guard the door, and Chang himself engaged in the wrestling.

The letter also recognizes Chang did acknowledge his participation in physically engaging with students and asked one of them to keep a lookout. In a call with The Bee, Chang said the actions that developed in his classroom were not a fight club, but students horsing around in jest.

Speaking with The Bee, Chang said he deeply regrets allowing himself to be “one of the boys,” and the events that developed in his classroom earlier this year.

“I deeply regret asking a student to guard the door; of course that is a terrible thing to do,” he said. “If I had to do it again, I would never let any of these kinds of things happen again.”

During his interrogation meeting and the days since, Chang said he owns up to his mistakes, never had the intention to hurt a child or get any students in trouble and profusely apologizes.

“I wish I could go back to that day and tell myself not to do that,” he said.

Chang mentioned his firing also comes after high tensions between Clovis North’s administration, band program and orchestra class. The lack of clarity he perceives has made him believe his firing is not only based on his recent mistake, he said, but also on several disagreements and misunderstandings that happened during the Fall 2023 semester.

Upon learning of Chang’s firing, community members rallied in Chang’s favor and organized to attend Clovis Unified School District’s board meeting in support of him on Wednesday, Feb. 21. They also reached out to The Bee to share Chang’s situation.

Anastasia Bopp, a Clovis North mom whose daughter was one of Mr. Chang’s students, helped launch a petition calling on the district to reinstate Chang as the education center’s orchestra teacher the day after the board meeting. Since then, it has collected more than 700 signatures.

Bopp said she was told that students had been wrestling in jest and there was a cheerful air in the classroom, described “almost like a team building sort of incident.” She said she wasn’t aware how much Chang had gotten involved when she talked to The Bee after launching the petition.

Bopp said she’s seen “a number of coaches” be physical with students in football, basketball and wrestling programs, and the district’s response to Chang’s behavior, given his track record as a great teacher, seems out of proportion.

“Obviously, if it got out of control, then by all means there should be some sort of disciplinary action,” Bopp said. “But in a man who has an exemplary, wonderful career and resume – and no previous incident – then why should he be completely just written off when otherwise he’s been great?”

Chang was a “probationary teacher” and instructors with that classification “can be released at any time prior to the end of their probationary period, which is two years from the time they are qualified to be tenured track,” Clovis Unified’s spokesperson Kelly Avants said in an email to The Bee.

Avants further stated that Chang was hired on a “provisional internship permit” on December 2019, and his release is part of board procedures that follow the state’s educational code.

“His name was on the Non-reelection of Probationary Certificated Employees resolution approved by the Governing Board on February 21,” Avants stated, “which ends his employment with the District as of the end of this school year. That is public record.”

However, in the public records about this Feb. 21 meeting, no list of employees is attached to it’s respective action item as of March 5. Details about it were not discussed either, during the board meeting, as evidenced in the district’s meeting video recording.

The resolution to release probationary staff was listed as an information point in the Feb. 7 board meeting, but not vocally presented or discussed as shown and recorded in this meeting’s video. Names are also not attached to this meeting’s public documents.

After The Bee inquired about Chang’s name being mentioned in the school board agenda, Clovis Unified updated its online public documents on March 6 to include his name and another Clovis East teacher also let go.