Rockwall-Heath students and parents show support for suspended football coach at school board meeting

ROCKWALL, Texas – Dozens of students and parents attended a Rockwall ISD board meeting to show their support for a coach suspended for what other parents describe as a dangerous workout.

They came to the meeting together on Tuesday, all wearing identical Leave Harrell shirts.

Rockwall-Heath head football coach John Harrell was suspended last week after a practice that left some of his players in the hospital. Some of them were there for days.

As Child Protective Services and the county investigate, dozens of players and parents stood up in solidarity and asked county leaders not to fire their football coach.

At the start of Tuesday’s meeting, about 40 Rockwall-Heath students and their parents showed up in matching T-shirts to support Harrell.

The coach has been placed on administrative leave following a January 6 training session that resulted in several players being hospitalized.

“It’s not about picking a side,” said varsity player Brady Luff. “We want to support Coach Harrell and all of our teammates. Harrell was a father figure to many of these boys, myself included.”

Bobby Robinson is the football parent of Rockwall-Heath. He said the coach should not be blamed for what he calls “the gladiatorial sport”.

“I think some of us as parents have failed. If our kids are going to play sports, we have to push them and do what we need to do at home because of the demand,” he said. “It will definitely happen again. Maybe not next year, but it will happen again. Because it’s football.”

But parents of hospitalized players say their children have actually gone too far.

A few days after training, some people developed symptoms of rhabdomyolysis, a dangerous disease in which muscle tissue is destroyed too quickly.

Osehotue Okokie’s son was in the hospital for seven days.

“He couldn’t raise his hands, brush his teeth. He couldn’t raise his hands to wash himself. He had swelling in his muscles. these are kids”.

FOX 4 learned on Monday that the CPS had launched an investigation into the incident separate from the county’s investigation.

CPS Investigates Rockwall Heath Workout That Leads to Hospitalization

On Tuesday, the school board had no action on the agenda regarding the investigation, only a private meeting with his lawyer.

But board president Linda Mitchell Durand made a brief statement following a speech by a group of Harrell supporters.

“Our hearts and our prayers go out to all the kids involved, all the parents involved, and the teachers involved,” she said.

None of the parents of the hospitalized students spoke at Tuesday’s meeting. Those we spoke to earlier this week did not plan to attend.

The county said in a statement that the investigation will take time, and they are asking the community to let the process end before “accepting the consequences.”