Ex-Russell County baseball coach Tony Rasmus settles dispute with school board
The dispute between former Russell County High School head baseball coach Tony Rasmus and the Russell County Board of Education has been settled.
Russell County School District superintendent Brenda Coley complied with the Ledger-Enquirer’s request under the Alabama Public Records Law to disclose the document that describes the agreement.
Rasmus and the board entered into the agreement March 2 — a year after the day Rasmus turned himself in at the Russell County Sheriff’s Office and made bond on the assault charge stemming from an allegation that he choked a player during a Feb. 16, 2021, confrontation.
March 2, 2021, also is the day the board suspended Rasmus with pay.
On Oct. 18, a jury found Rasmus not guilty of a Class A misdemeanor of third-degree assault, the verdict a county judge reached in a June trial. The jurors concluded Rasmus was guilty of the lesser offense of harassment, for touching the player.
At an Oct. 28 hearing stretching into the wee hours of the next day, the school board rejected Coley’s request to fire Rasmus. Instead, the board voted 4-1 to suspend Rasmus without pay until June 30.
Rasmus appealed his suspension to the Alabama Department of Education. Retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts served as the hearing officer.
In his Feb. 4 written ruling overturning the suspension, Butts said the Russell board “violated fundamental requirements of due process to which Rasmus was entitled throughout their handling of the employment action against Rasmus.”
Rasmus won another ruling Feb. 4 when Russell County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bellamy reduced the fine in the harassment case from $500 to $50 and the payment to the Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission from $100 to $25. He also struck the court costs.
Details of Rasmus settlement with Russell board
According to the document, Rasmus and the board decided to settle their dispute to avoid further costs of litigation. They agree that:
- Rasmus is immediately reinstated as a physical education teacher, retroactive to Feb. 1, with the same salary and benefits he was paid before his suspension without pay.
- Rasmus accepts three months (Nov. 1-Jan. 31) of the suspension without pay and waives any claim for payment of salary and benefits not previously paid to him during that time. He also waives any claim to supplemental pay for coaching since his Oct. 28 suspension without pay.
- Rasmus won’t coach or work as athletics director in RCSD.
- The board won’t subject Rasmus to any employment disciplinary action stemming from the allegations described in Coley’s July 28 letter to Rasmus, and this agreement resolves all disputes between the board and Rasmus as they relate to those allegations.
So, essentially, Rasmus traded his right to receive back pay for the three months between his suspension without pay and the reversal of his suspension in exchange for the board agreeing to not appeal Butts’ decision.
Asked why he agreed to the settlement, Rasmus told the L-E in an email, “Just tired of fooling with it all. Doctor Coley would keep pushing this to the United States Supreme Court if I kept fighting. You can’t get justice in this world today. This is the best we could muster.”
Phenix City lawyer Jim McKoon, who represents Rasmus in the case, explained the settlement’s rationale for his client.
“While we feel that no discipline of any kind should have been imposed, especially since Coach Rasmus had been found not guilty of the assault charge against him, we felt it best to compromise and move on rather than to continue with the emotional and legal costs of a lengthy appeal process,” McKoon said in an email to the L-E. “ The important thing is that Coach Rasmus is back teaching and is approximately two years away from achieving full retirement. It is his goal to finish his career out as a teacher and retire.”
The RCSD board unanimously approved the settlement. Asked why she voted for the agreement and what it does for the school district, board president Eugenia Upshaw wouldn’t share her opinion and instead told the L-E, “Everything is in the document.”
The L-E didn’t reach Coley for comment before publication.
Tony Rasmus baseball coaching success
Rasmus coached Russell County to the 2005 Alabama Class 5A state title and a Phenix City all-star team to the 1999 U.S. championship and runner-up finish in the Little League World Series. He played three seasons in the minor leagues during the 1980s. Three of his four sons also played professional baseball.
Rasmus has worked for 23 years in the Alabama public school system, so he needs only two more years to receive a full retirement package from the state, he told the L-E last fall.
The RCHS baseball program never had a winning season before his first season as the head coach in 2001, Rasmus has said. He led the Warriors to 590 wins, 17 area championships, a No. 1 national ranking by USA Today, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. He helped 70 players earn college scholarships, with 25 of them in NCAA Division I, and Major League Baseball teams have drafted 19 of his players, including four in the first round, Rasmus has said.
“Coach Rasmus has helped hundreds of young men over the years not only become better baseball players but better people,” McKoon said. “His coaching record speaks for itself.”
And he might coach elsewhere..
“Always on the lookout for a baseball coaching position,” Rasmus said. “. . . I still believe I can help some kids reach their dreams. Our program turned out more college and pro kids than any other around here. Must have been doing something right in terms of development. I’d like to keep coaching if the opportunity shows itself.”
Staff writer Tim Chitwood contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 6:50 AM.
