Parma school district’s conspiracy-loving head football coach is a problem | Opinion
Parma’s got a problem.
The school district in this quiet farming community of about 2,000 people in rural Canyon County has hired a seriously off-the-charts conspiracy theorist and far-right extremist to be the high school’s football coach.
As many can attest, a coach can be an important mentor and influential role model for teenagers. And Jarome Bell claims that he has been just that in Virginia, where he spent years as a coach.
Unfortunately, based on his history, his expletive-laced social media posts and dangerous beliefs in wacky conspiracies, he’s the last person you’d want influencing your child.
As reported by the Idaho Statesman’s Ryan Suppe, Bell is a twice-failed congressional candidate from Virginia who’s fallen for Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and also is a fan of Trump-like diatribes online.
He called the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters at the U.S. Capitol seeking to stop the certification of a fair election “patriots” who “basically went on a guided tour of the Capitol,” according to The Washington Post. Many of those “patriots” are in prison now.
And while he has no problem with a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol that sent lawmakers fleeing, he believes anyone who engages in voter fraud should be executed.
A U.S. Navy veteran, he believes Ukraine, invaded by Russia, was the aggressor, and compared what he called Ukrainian corruption to “Hillary (Clinton)’s deep state and Biden’s regime that stole the election,” according to The Post.
He reposted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, a claim that “the number of illegals Biden let in” is 40 million to 50 million.
In a recent episode of his podcast, he featured a nearly hourlong conversation with a “doctor” about a crazy conspiracy that the FDA is pulling Benadryl from pharmacy shelves. The doctor’s conspiracy theory is a doozy: The FDA wants to remove Benadryl because the antihistamine is effective in staving off ebola at least temporarily, until natural immunity can occur.
(The FDA is not removing Benadryl from shelves. An FDA advisory committee last week voted 16-0 that an active ingredient, phenylephrine, in over-the-counter oral products such as Benadryl is not an effective nasal decongestant. It has nothing to do with the antihistamine ingredient diphenhydramine.)
He has spread misinformation about voter fraud, and he has shared posts on Facebook that have been flagged as coronavirus misinformation, according to the Post.
Bell posted on X a message to Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams to “stop crying like a little b----” and “shut the f--- up” about needing federal help with migrant asylum seekers.
That’s certainly not model behavior or language for a person in such an influential position.
There’s nothing wrong with having truly conservative beliefs about smaller government, limited regulations and lower taxes. It’s quite another matter altogether to promulgate beliefs in conspiracy theories that are completely divorced from reality and to lambaste people online.
Fortunately, Bell is just a coach and isn’t a teacher in a classroom. But he’s a teacher in another kind of classroom, and he gets those students every practice outside of school. Bell said he doesn’t talk politics or allow those beliefs to bleed into coaching football, but it’s hard to imagine that his fringe ideas don’t seep into day-to-day interactions with players.
School district officials declined to comment on whether they knew of Bell’s history, social media posts or his podcast before they hired him.
If they had known, would they have hired him to guide the next generation of Parma men?
Now that they clearly know, what will they do to ensure his dangerous conspiracies don’t infect his players?
Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.
