Coach left after complaints of improper texting

The resignation of a Ventura County high school baseball coach for what he said were health reasons came after he allegedly sent inappropriate text messages to one of his players, according to public records and interviews.

Seven games into last season, Mike Lee stepped down as coach at Westlake High, while remaining a teacher at Newbury Park High, both in the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

Both he and Assistant Principal Drew Passalacqua told parents, students and the news media that “personal health reasons” were responsible for Lee’s abrupt departure from the elite program, which has turned out major league players Mike Lieberthal and Matt Franco. Lee is now teaching and coaching at Claremont High School.

According to a memo from Westlake Principal Ron Lipari to the Newbury Park principal, obtained by The Times through the California Public Records Act, Lee’s messages to the player included “Love You” and a slang sexual remark. They were sent less than a year after Lee was told to stop sending text messages amid complaints from parents, the memo said.

Doug Kroker, who has a son on the Westlake team and served as treasurer for the school’s baseball booster club, expressed outrage at the earlier statements by school officials.

“It’s worse than misleading,” Kroker said. “It’s lying and a cover-up. The school should have disclosed this so that parents could have checked their sons’ text messages to see if they were getting them too.”

Jeff Baarstad, deputy superintendent of the Conejo Valley district, said Monday that Lee, who is in his mid-30s, had resigned for health reasons and that additional information was not released “in the interest of protecting a confidential personnel situation.”

“He offered to resign and the reason he gave for wanting to resign was it was affecting his health,” Baarstad said. Lipari and Passalacqua concurred in interviews this week.

Baarstad added that whenever there is “any evidence whatsoever” of an adult having an inappropriate physical or emotional relationship with a student, the district investigates immediately or refers the matter to police, if a crime is suspected.

“We did not believe at that time or at this time that Mr. Lee did anything physically damaging to kids,” he said.

Several phone messages left for Lee in the last few days were not returned.

On Sept. 4, Lee was hired as a physical education teacher and baseball coach at Claremont High, whose athletic director, Rick Dutton, said Lee told him that he left Westlake primarily because of health issues.

Devon Freitas, assistant superintendent of human resources for the Claremont Unified School District, said the district had received “glowing letters of recommendation” for Lee from Lipari and from former Newbury Park Principal Max Beaman.

Lipari and Passalacqua said no one from Claremont contacted them during Lee’s interview process. --

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com