Donning t-shirts reading “#DixonIsSouth,” students, parents, and faculty filed into the Lee County School Board chambers to support South Fort Myers High School’s head football coach Anthony Dixon.
Dixon was dismissed by the district after the district found out several of the football players were in a school bathroom having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
Four in Your Corner was the first to bring you the details inside a nearly 90-page investigative report in which the district claimed Dixon failed to adequately supervise students.
The football players were supposed to be in study hall when the sex incident occurred.
Dixon’s attorney Benjamin Yormak said Dixon left the athletes with three assistant coaches while he took a lunch break.
“He didn’t fail to supervise. Having three assistant coaches supervise a study hall should be more than enough,” Yormak said.
Yormak said Dixon didn’t violate any district policies when he handed off control of the students.
The report also claims Dixon may have failed to report a possible crime in a timely manner.
“That's absolutely false because they knew about it within 30-45 min of Mr. Dixon knowing about it,” Yormak said.
Dixon said in his statement to the district after a student told him something happened in the bathroom, “I got them to write statements and turned it over to Dr. Mitchell,” an assistant principal at South Fort Myers High.
Emotional students explained Dixon is more than a coach or security guard, he’s a father figure to some who don’t have one.
“He would be away from his family, his kids, to be with us,” one student said before the board.
He was one of nearly 30 people who took the podium for public comment during the School Board Meeting to support Dixon.
Because the school board hasn’t voted on Dixon’s termination, they couldn’t comment on the matter.
