Jackson Digging In for a Fight : High school basketball: Fired Campbell Hall coach says he will aggressively pursue reinstatement.

Joe Jackson cleaned out his desk at Campbell Hall High last week during spring break. There were no handshakes, no tearful goodbys.

In fact, there was hardly anybody around.

“I went in when it was just me and the janitor,” said Jackson, who recently was fired as boys’ basketball coach.

Jackson reiterated this week that he will not be tossed out with the trash. Yet the reasons behind his dismissal remain as cloudy as a bucket of mop water.

Jackson, who last month learned that he would not be retained despite leading the team to the Southern Section V-AA Division final and a state playoff berth, said that he will aggressively pursue reinstatement even though the school’s administration has placed him on paid leave for the rest of the school year and has made it clear it does not want him on campus.

“As long as the majority of the faculty and students want me, I’m not going to let the decision of a couple override the decision of the rest,” said Jackson, a full-time physical education teacher.

Students at the school reportedly are set to stage a demonstration at the front gate on Laurel Canyon Blvd. today at 8 a.m.

Campbell Hall, a parochial school of about 250 students in North Hollywood, has refused comment on why Jackson was let go. Headmaster Tom Clarke reportedly has informed the third-year coach that he will not be granted a review.

“It’s an employee matter,” said Carol Heyes, the school’s public-relations director. “That is always a confidential matter.”

Heyes also refused to comment on whether the school had begun searching for a replacement.

Jackson has hired legal representation in an attempt to ensure that his personnel complaint is reviewed by the school, something he said his contract guarantees in the event of non-renewal. On advice of counsel, Jackson has refused to elaborate on the reasons behind the dismissal, but said that he did nothing of a criminal nature.

“I didn’t put my hands on a kid, I didn’t steal any money, I didn’t molest anybody, I’m not in trouble for recruiting and I’m not in trouble with the CIF,” he said. “Draw your own conclusions.”

Jackson’s attorney has given the school two weeks to respond to a petition for a review, but Jackson will not elaborate on what he plans to do if the request is denied.

Rich Goldberg, who runs the Valley-based American Roundball Corp., a youth basketball league for which Jackson has coached and officiated, said he believes the school simply wasn’t ready for the attention that a successful sports program can attract.

Goldberg said that Jackson was probably let go because influential parents, who may have felt that Jackson was too hard on the players, pressured the school’s administration to make a change.

“I don’t think they were ready for a quality program at all,” he said. “I question their values. If the pervading value is to fire a guy after he works hard to establish a successful program, what’s that tell the kids?”

All five starters return next season from a team that posted a 24-5 record and its first winning season in the sport. Whether the players will choose to remain if Jackson is not retained is unclear, but one parent who asked not to be identified said she is waiting for an explanation from the school regarding Jackson’s dismissal before deciding on the family’s next move.

Players who transfer to another school must change residence to gain immediate athletic eligibility.