(AP) – A Colorado high school cheerleading coach has been fired amid videos showing him pushing cheerleaders down in splits.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg said Ozell Williams was dismissed Friday from his job at East High School.
Four other school district employees have been suspended, and police have opened a child abuse investigation.
Williams told The Denver Post the videos were taken out of context but couldn’t yet talk about what happened.
Boasberg also said the district has hired a law firm to investigate how officials at the school and the district level handled the incident.
The superintendent said East High School officials learned of the incident in June and should have taken “certain actions” then. He didn’t say what those actions should have been.
Boasberg said he personally didn’t learn of the incident until this week.