Quincy High School A.D. Cleared To Return To Work After Investigation Into His Hiring

By Thomas Peele, EdSource

November 28, 2022

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Quincy Junior-Senior High School’s athletic director in Plumas County is expected to return to work Tuesday after an investigation found nothing wrong with his hiring in 2018, the Plumas Unified School district announced late Monday.

The athletic director, Jason Hawkins, was placed on paid leave in September after EdSource reported he had resigned as San Jose State’s baseball coach in early 2018 following an investigative finding that he had sexually harassed his players there and referred to a Black player with a highly offensive racial slur.

The district hired an outside law firm that investigated “any allegations made against Hawkins and the hiring practices in place during that time,” Superintendent William Roderick wrote in a statement. “There were no findings against Plumas Unified School District or Mr. Hawkins.”

The allegations that led to the suspension were not disclosed. Roderick said Monday night that he could not answer questions on the matter without first talking to the district’s lawyers.

“I have learned from my past mistakes and am committed to not making the same mistakes again,” Hawkins wrote in an email to EdSource on Monday night. He added that he looked “forward to continuing to serve the amazing students and parents of Quincy Junior/Senior High School and working with its wonderful staff members.”

A San Jose State spokesperson told EdSource in September that the university’s personnel office had no record of receiving a request for a reference or employment check from the Plumas Unified School District about Hawkins.

The university’s investigation of Hawkins began on July 31, 2018, when an assistant coach Hawkins had hired the year before filed a workplace grievance against him. Hawkins, investigators found, had routinely told his players raunchy sex jokes, even ones about his own wife. He claimed it was his way of loosening up the team before games.

Other times he’d make one of the players the butt of the joke, naming them. He also talked about people having sex with animals, the report said.

“The student-athletes believed it was inappropriate for (Hawkins) to speak in a sexual way,” investigators wrote.

After a Black player hit a home run, Hawkins yelled the highly offensive slur.

The player “stated he was shocked by the comment and felt he had no choice but to tell (Hawkins) it was ‘all good’ because he wanted to play,” an investigator wrote.

Hawkins was also found to have made derogatory racial remarks about Asian and Latino players. His jokes often involved women and LBGTQ people, investigators found.

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