BROKEN ARROW, Okla. -- Both students and parents are reaching out to 2 Works for You, saying Broken Arrow football coaches are driving them away from the sport.
They wanted to remain anonymous, but one parent said her son is now looking to change schools.
"Football is his dream. It's what he wants to do. It's what inspires him and what motivates him in life," she said.
Broken Arrow's spokesperson declined an interview, but sent a statement saying: "Any time an employee is accused of using hurtful words, those allegations are taken seriously. We were notified yesterday of an incident that allegedly happened two to three months ago, and started gathering information. It would be unfair to everyone involved to comment further at this time."
"When these kids get to the point where they're humiliated and it's making them depressed, their grades are falling and this is by school staff members... this is not okay," the parent said.
Students said it was everything from dropping F bombs to being called fat and lazy. Those that reached out played because football was their passion, but left because they said leaders prevented it from being fun anymore.
"They don't know how to make the right plays and all this stuff. They just ruined the game for me," one sophomore said.
The student believes that for coaches eager to win, weeding out students was the goal.
He said "what we're going to do is we're going to make the weak kids quit even if you love the sport" or "if you're not in shape during summer pride we're going to try hard just to make you quit," the sophomore said.
Staff at the high school said they're currently collecting statements from both students and coaches.
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