Are Administrators the New “Fall Guys” in RI High School Sports Controversies?

Are Administrators the New “Fall Guys” in RI High School Sports Controversies?

Two recent high-profile controversies involving high school athletes at Rhode Island public schools have seen school administrators take the proverbial falls.

This week, GoLocal obtained the "confidential" report summary by former Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Steve O’Donnell regarding the October 2025 incident at Newport's Rogers High School in which football players were arrested following a locker room assault of a disabled student. 

In the summary, O’Donnell flagged what he said were “serious systemic failures that must be addressed at the high school;" he said the incident “revealed serious concerns regarding student safety, staff awareness, administrative oversight, and institutional culture."

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In a communication with the Newport School Committee regarding the report, School Committee Chair James Dring noted that the Rogers High School principal, Jared Vance, “has been placed on leave effective immediately for the rest of the school year."

“'[The] Superintendent and School Committee are continuing to take appropriate corrective actions and will begin implementing [the report] recommendations as appropriate," wrote Dring. 

It marks the latest administrator to face professional consequences following the reported behavior of students, specifically athletes. 

Now-former Smithfield Superintendent Dawn Bartz announced she was resigning, after being placed on leave, during an investigation of alleged anti-semitism involving football players. 

Both situations involved student-athletes on sports teams overseen by coaches. The Rogers Football team’s season was canceled in late November.

In Smithfield, the situation involving four football players and allegations of antisemitism against another student sparked outrage, and everyone from the Smithfield School Committee down to the coaches was criticized. The review of the Smithfield situation came under fire as the lead lawyer for the law firm reviewing the incident is a former school committee chair.

The investigative attorney is Sean Clough, who served as chair of the school committee up until 2018 and has been active in political campaigns in the town as a candidate and a donor. Clough works for the long-time School Committee's law firm, Brennan Scungio & Kresge LLP.

John Tassoni, the President of the Smithfield Town Council, told GoLocal in a phone interview in November, “It should not be done this way. It should not be done by [the Smithfield School Committee’s] lawyer. It should be done by an independent person who has knowledge of these types of things.”

“It's unfortunate that we're at the point that we're at, but something needs to be done. Leadership needs to happen,” added Tassoni.

 

Rogers in Focus

The Newport report, written by O'Donnell, has raised some concerns.

O’Donnell, while RISP Superintendent under then-Governor Gina Raimondo, was the focus of a 2019 consultant report which looked into allegations of corruption in the agency, including “the hazing of recruits resulting in the adverse impact of minority recruits in the RISP.”

Former State Police Chief Legal Counsel Lisa Holley blamed O’Donnell for the decline of the agency’s morale. O'Donnell was also the subject of a gender discrimination lawsuit while CEO of the Greater Providence YMCA; that case was settled. 

While O’Donnell’s report summary on Rogers High School provides recommendations that the school should implement moving forward, it does not address the specifics of the events that took place or the football program. 

O’Donnell has also been the long-time coach of the La Salle Academy boys lacrosse team, which had its own high-profile controversy.

“The report has determined that many cultural issues have developed at Rogers High School over time that were ignored or the path of least resistance was taken,” O’Donnell wrote in his three-page “Executive Summary.”  

“There is a very large, cultural gap between teachers in general and the administrative frontline teams. How each group perceives or misunderstands each other's roles and empathy for their respective day-to-day functions as a common theme within the school. Poor communication, delayed responses, inconsistent accountability for actions by staff and students have contributed to fractured trust,” wrote O’Donnell. “The unintended consequences of this creates a complicated learning environment.”

In his recommendations, O’Donnell suggested that all staff - not just coaches - need to be more involved in students’ extracurricular and athletic activities. 

“Teachers and staff should make a concerted effort to attend functions of their students outside of school hours,” said O’Donnell. 

One of the things he blames is the school’s “dress code” - and “bystander training;" O’Donnell also recommended that the school “review the dress code policy, change, and enforce.”

“The wearing of hats in a school system is not the best practice. The wearing of hoods has to be actively enforced. The teachers and staff must have the ability to see an entire face to verify if that person belongs where they are,” wrote O’Donnell. 

O’Donnell suggested that Rogers officials “work with the Rhode Island Interscholastic League on ‘active bystander’ training” - and that suspending students should be a last resort.

He recommended that Rogers “develop accountability standards that “address the reasons behind student behavior and prioritize alternatives to suspension, as research shows these methods are more effective than removing students from school.”

The role of coaches for both discipline and accountability is not mentioned once in the summary.

The position of principal is mentioned only once. 

“Set up a student advisory board that meets directly with the school, principal and designees,” wrote O’Donnell among his suggestions. “Their input is essential.”