The Plainview Board of Education spent just over two hours in executive session last Friday, Feb. 2 before returned to open session and placing Superintendent Dr. Darron Arlt on a week of unpaid administrative leave following public discourse about a post Arlt had made on social media concerning girls’ wrestling.
Earlier in the week on Monday, Jan. 29, Arlt had posted a response to @doctalksports, concerning his personal thoughts on the status of girls wrestling in Nebraska. @doctalksports is the “X” social media handle for Dr. Rob Zatechka, a media figure from Omaha that hosts the “Doc Talk” podcast with Travis Justice – from their website “Dr. Rob Zatechka and Travis Justice drink beer, talk football, and might swear from time to time. But, you can count on an entertaining, honest conversation that pulls no punches when it comes to praise or criticism.”
After the comments had circulated on “X” and Facebook, they began to receive attention from numerous commenters, who began to accuse Arlt of a misogynistic tone in his opinions and description of girls’ wrestling in Nebraska. Arlt’s original post follows: “Admittedly, I’ve attended just a few girl’s tournaments, but I’ve come to this opinion. Girl’s Wrestling in Nebraska is not ready for Prime Time. The overall quality of talent and understanding of the demands of wrestling is “emerging”, and that is where I feel the NSAA should have kept the sport.
“I have observed a lot of crying, ice bag requests, and quite frankly…drama. Having said that, I know there are some pretty good to elite ladies and teams competing across Nebraska and we all know the overall # of competitors is growing rapidly, but is the sport “maturing” just as rapidly to justify blowing up the boy’s state tournament so they can be included?
“The girls deserve a tournament of their own so they can create their own traditions and have the spotlight just on them. I think this could have been done in alignment with Title IX and I think the NSAA and schools across NE could have figured out how to accomplish this while sharing coaching duties and dates with the boys. It just seems to me to be a bit of a rush to get as many girls to CHI than maybe are ready for it. I respect the opinion of those who feel different, and I hope you respect mine.” (From @DarronArlt).
Once the attention had been drawn to the post, Arlt deleted it, and issued a short statement about his comments and how they were interpreted: “At the request of someone I respect & who knows much more about this than I, and has coached elite ladies, I retract any language that was personally insensitive to any of you. I just believe that as long as the ladies are with the gents, they will be overshadowed.” (From @DarronArlt).
Later that day, also timestamped January 29, Arlt posted a posed, selfie photograph of the Plainview Lady Pirate wrestling team with the caption “There are the @PirateGrapplers ladies and I AM proud of them and support them 100%...always have!” (From @DarronArlt).
That post, as well, received a bit of pushback from the social media-verse – with calls for Arlt’s immediate resignation on a number of pages, after posting, what some viewers saw as “using” the Lady Pirate wrestling team to reverse his position, or make up for the original comments. Online comments continued to come in, and by Wednesday evening, the Board of Education had held a committee meeting with Arlt – with board members Mike Sauser, Wyatt Frahm and Tim Rasmussen in attendance.
Also on Wednesday, Jan. 31, Arlt made another post with the following: “Nebraska Girls Wrestling Community” and then a screenshot of the text, “I am sorry. My dismissive comments about your readiness for the grandest stage in wrestling were beyond insensitive. This is no reflective of my true heart and my mind. This thoughtless mistake of mine hurt so many of the very people I have spent decades supporting, encouraging and celebrating. I love my school community here in Plainview and I am especially sorry that I have disgraced you. It is with the most sincere humility that I ask for forgiveness.”
As of Tuesday, Feb. 6 that post had received 30 comments, and 13,200 views.
As a result of some additional comments being made on the School’s social media pages on Thursday, Feb. 1 – the two school principals – Kyle Schmidt and Jen Hodson – made the decision to shut off all comments on the school’s Facebook and X pages. Regular school update postings continued.
Committee meetings are not required to be open to the public but no decisions can be made at the committee level either – so the Board scheduled a full, emergency meeting for Friday, Feb. 2. Friday, Feb. 2 special meeting The Feb. 2 agenda was for “closed session to discuss the performance of an individual” and an open session topic to “Discuss and take possible action on Dr. Arlt’s contract and services for the remainder of the school year.”
Around 30 members of the community – taxpayers, parents, teachers, staff and residents – gathered at the Feb. 2 meeting, which lasted just a few minutes until the Board moved to enter the planned executive session. Around two hours after the closed session began, Board members returned to open session and read the following statement: “We are aware of the social media post made by our Superintendent, Darron Arlt, regarding state wrestling and the growth of girls wrestling in Nebraska. “As the school board, we have taken the last few days to understand and assess things. We do not support or condone Superintendent Arlt’s statement.
“We are proud of Plainview’s girls wrestling team. It has been a great addition to our program offerings for students and is quickly growing across Nebraska. After speaking with Superintendent Arlt at length, we believe his is genuinely sorry about his statement. “We also recognize the quick removal of his post and apologizing, while appreciated and appropriate, is not enough. “As of February 5, Dr. Arlt has been placed on unpaid administrative leave from Plainview Public Schools as we continue to discuss our response as a school board.
“To his credit, Dr. Arlt has been forthright and understanding of the fact that we have higher expectations for him. We will not have any additional information to share until our regular board meeting on February 12. At that time, we hope to share our plan for how best to move our school forward.”
The Board voted 6-0 – with Board members Deb Jensen, Mike Sauser, Tim Rasmussen, Wyatt Frahm, Melissa Doerr and Chance Anderson all agreeing to the Board statement. “Negotiated Consequences” Board President Tim Rasmussen thanked everyone for being in attendance at the Feb. 2 meeting, and that the Board intended to take public comment at the meeting on Feb. 12 as the regular agenda called for it.
The School’s “Public Comment” period typically is at the beginning of the meeting, prior to any agenda items being discussed or acted upon, and there are a host of regulations requested by the Board for anyone that wishes to speak on any item that appears on the agenda. As of Tuesday, Feb. 6, the agenda has been written to include the same agenda item as before “Discuss and take possible action on negotiated consequences for Dr. Darron Arlt” The Board of Education had passed a new two-year contract through 2026 at the previous month’s meeting, granting a $159,000 salary, and with basic math applied, the one week unpaid leave would cost Arlt around $3,057 in straight salary, plus the according benefits and other items offered by his contract.
In the days following the post – comments started out overwhelmingly negative, but in the most recent days, proponents of Arlt’s message have appeared, discounting the “aggressive” or “damaging nature” of the portions of his post in question, and drawing attention to the overall message – which was the overwhelming, overcrowded nature of the state wrestling tournament in Omaha since the addition of the girls’ competition.
Arlt made comment himself to a News Channel Nebraska for its story on Saturday, Feb. 3: ““I apologize but I am unable to comment. I take direction from my board and cannot make any further public comments at this time beyond my sincere regret for the thoughtless and hurtful comment and apology to the NE Girls Wrestling Community that I made Wednesday evening.” - Dr. Darron Arlt, Superintendent of Plainview Public Schools.” Arlt sent word to the Plainview News on Tuesday that he was not able to comment further “until authorized by my board.”