Thank you so much to everyone who has signed, shared, and donated to this petition. It means an immense amount to all of the families and community members who lost their program.
Tortious Interference Timeline
The summer of 2021 Echo Aquatics really took off. Coach Lopez quickly realized that she would have to add more revenue generating programs to offset the fee’s she was incurring running a club that waived so many of the kids fee’s, purchased equipment, paid FUSD to use the facilities, insurance and much more. She decided to add adult swim and water aerobics sessions.
An additional benefit to the FHS athletes by having their own swim club was the option to swim in the morning before school started. Student athletes could get in their conditioning during water polo season without it counting towards their practice time for the regular season. This is important because CIF caps the practice hours during the regular season. Water polo is a complicated sport that requires both “chalk talk” and physical fitness. Having the student athletes swim in the morning made it possible for the regular season hours to go towards learning the game of water polo through chalk talk and drills since the physical conditioning would have been done in the morning.
Timeline of events – All information has been validated through obtaining emails, social media, and multiple eye witness accounts.
6/1/2021 - Coach Lopez spoke to Natalie Clark (FAMM president) to inquire when their morning practice ended. She wanted to have more days for her student athletes to practice in the morning, but did not want to harm FAMM. Natalie informed Coach Lopez that their practice ended at 6:30 a.m. and they used the FHS locker rooms until 7:00 a.m. Minors under the age of 18 can not be in the locker room with adults that are not cleared by FUSD. Coach Lopez agreed to having her FHS student athletes refrain from using their locker rooms until after 7:00 a.m. so that FAMM could clear the deck. Coach Lopez normally started morning practice at 6am, but was compromising not to interrupt their practice.
Because this was an uncommon situation FUSD was working on a memo of understanding “MOU'' so that both clubs could continue. At the urging of Natalie Clark, this would be halted as soon as Principal Laettner entered the situation.
6/2/2021 - FUSD and FHS officials had zero issue with Echo Aquatics sharing the pool with the “school sponsored” Summer Bridge program in the afternoons. This was prior to Coach Lopez’s conversation with Principal Laettner. District and site officials did not have an issue.
6/20/2021 - Natalie spoke to Kim Mecum (FUSD COA at the time) regarding the FAMM use of the FHS pool and Echo Aquatics. After this meeting Natalie emailed Principal Laettner to meet, she included the enticement of a donation in her email.
6/29/2021 at 12:10p.m. - Natalie Clark met with Principal Laettner to discuss Echo Aquatics programs and FAMM pool use. After this meeting Principal Laettner reached out to Coach Lopez to derail her aquatic program.
6/29/2021- a little after 2:00p.m. - After lunch, Coach Lopez received a call from FHS principal Linda Laettner inquiring about Echo Aquatics support of the community. She was informed that she would not be able to offer masters swimming because another club, FAMM offered those sessions at FHS. She was told having two clubs at FHS offering masters would make the school look bad. Coach Lopez asked about FHS alumni swimming with Echo. Laettner said that would be okay as long as it wasn’t a masters program.
Laettner also informed Coach Lopez that she could not have non-FHS adults on campus after 7am. This was not only a misrepresentation of FUSD board policies but a "rule" made up to deter Coach Lopez from offering adult programs. When other sports have on-campus sports tournaments after 7am, outside adults are able to attend. Why was it different for Coach Lopez?
After the phone call, Coach Lopez added language to Echo Aquatics website and sent the principal a text letting her know. Coach Lopez would also not be able to start the Tuesday/Thursday morning practices at 6:30am until school started in the Fall. She had initially asked to start July 1, to give the FHS student athletes a chance to acclimate to their schedule. Athletes were not used to attending school everyday in person, so it would be an adjustment for them. She wanted to make sure her athletes were ready to go in all aspects. Coach Lopez let Principal Laettner know that the language to the Echo Aquatics website was edited to make it clear Echo was not a masters program. She acknowledged by liking the text message. This is a misrepresentation of FUSD board policy 1330.
7/1/2022 - FUSD and FHS officials had zero issue with Echo Aquatics sharing the pool with the “school sponsored” Summer Bridge program in the afternoons. This was prior to the conversation with Principal Laettner. District and site officials did not have an issue. Echo ran concurrently with the school sponsored program that summer. FAMM is the only swim club that refuses to allow kids to share the pool.
7/3/2021 - Coach Lopez went to FHS to open the deck for the water aerobics class. She was locked out of the deck. FAMM president Natalie Clark had a key and was locking her out. All pleas to the FHS administration asking them to ensure FAMM did not lock them out, went ignored. About six weeks later Coach Lopez was able to get the key. She had never been locked out of the pool, prior to her conversation with principal Laettner.
7/19/2021 - First donation from FAMM sent to the FHS principal's general fund.
8/5/2021 - Former FHS Vice Principal Vincent Salazar contacted Coach Lopez to bully her into moving her TTH morning practice even later to give FAMM more pool deck time.
8/10/2021 - After the FAMM donation of $1,500 to FHS’s general fund. A blog post about the impact Echo Aquatics has had directly on the athletes of Fresno High School was published on the Echo Aquatics website. It was written to make it clear that Coach Lopez’s club, Echo Aquatics, was also contributing to the community around FHS. No other coaches have been put in a position that they have to justify their contributions to the community. Coach Lopez was put in this position by Principal Laettner looking for ways to justify her gutting of the regular and offseason aquatics program at FHS.
8/13/2021 - It became clear that Coach Lopez would not be able to offset the costs of running a club that didn’t charge the current and incoming FHS athletes without adult programs. She had hit her breaking point with FHS’s toxic environment. To move her club to another high school she would have to eliminate conflicts of interest. These conflicts would include: the support of FHS’s aquatics program and coaching at FHS. Between this, equipment issues, and harassment from a male coach, she resigned. The lack of support from the prior administration had taken its toll on Coach Lopez and the other coaches.
8/31/2021 - All Echo programs ended at Fresno High School due to the restrictions placed by FHS Principal Laettner.
10/15/2021 - A press conference for a $5,000 donation made by FAMM to the FHS general fund. This was not only unethical, but also disheartening that parents and athletes had to witness their program gutted for a mere $5,000. This spectacle was to make it clear to the community who has priority use of the FHS pool.
10/29/2021 - The day after Coach Lopez was no longer with FHS, Principal Laettner emailed Natalie Clark to let her know she could have more pool time.
1/18/2022 - A second female aquatic coach gave her notice to FHS. She listed very similar patterns that Coach Lopez experienced.