After nearly six weeks, Pleasant Valley players return to the court

An investigation into the residency of five student-athletes on the Pleasant Valley boys basketball team concluded earlier this week, but questions remain for some about the steps taken during the process.

James Stewart Sr. outlined the timeline for the school’s suspension from the team of his son, James Stewart Jr., Joel Contreras, Shelby Joyner Jr., Isaiah Spruill and Leland Hargrow.

It was a process that began with an anonymous letter questioning the residency of the five boys, who are also on an AAU team together.

The letter — with an attached photo of the five boys, their faces circled, playing together on an AAU team from the summer — originally went to the PIAA, which declined to take any action since it has a policy of not investigating anonymous complaints. The PIAA did, however, forward the letter to Pleasant Valley.

The letter questioned how the five AAU teammates all wound up playing basketball at Pleasant Valley this season, even though none of them played for the Bears a year ago.

Stewart said that the families first found out about the letter when Pleasant Valley had decided to start its own investigation into it on Dec. 19 — one day before the players served the first game of their suspension against Stroudsburg.

“We had a meeting with the athletic director (Tom Toth) and the head coach (Bobby Hahn), and we asked them about the letter. What was concerning to us as parents was the safety of the boys, and how they were going to keep them safe. Where I come from, if your kid’s face is circled on a group picture, they’re either a victim, target or suspect or something even worse.”

“Mr. Toth said to me that they didn’t believe there was any threat to the boys. That really got me upset,” Stewart said.

He said his concern with the players’ safety was his top priority — though he wasn’t sure it was the district’s.

“When it comes to the school taking action in terms of extra protection, we did not see any,” he said. “We got some more information, and we started getting close to the source of the letter, and figuring out that involved other parents of kids on the team.”

Recently, the players wore black hoodies with their picture — the same one circulated with the letter — on the front and “innocent” underneath it. On the back, it read, “What the enemy meant for evil, God used it for good. Genesis 50:20,” with a “PV5″ logo below to signify unity.

That caused more problems as the school added a one-game suspension after they were cleared to play, not allowing the five players to play in Tuesday’s game against East Stroudsburg South.

The suspension was for “insubordination,” is what Stewart and the players were told since they had been advised against wearing the hoodies and making “a spectacle” of the situation.

After playing the first four games of the season and then missing the next 15, the five players finally returned to the court on Wednesday against Nazareth.

One of the questions bothering Stewart is why the process took so long. The players missed 68 percent of the Bears regular season games — a stretch that began Dec. 20 and lasted until the final week of January.

“All the parents met with (acting Superintendent) Dr. (Charlene) Brennan, in regards to what she needed from us to clear this whole thing up. We had that meeting and she had all our paperwork on Dec. 23, and the attorney that we retained told us that we had to be patient, and that they would (probably) use the holiday break.

“When school resumed on Jan. 2, we figured, OK, they’re back to business, we’ll hear something soon. The only thing we heard was on Jan. 3. Joel’s mother received an email request for a couple of paystubs, and so did Ms. Hargrow. Ms. Hargrow’s email had a phrase in it though that said if she got those paystubs by the next business (day), which was the Friday, by noon, her son could be cleared to play that Saturday, Jan. 5. She complied and got her paystubs in, and Joel’s mother got her paystubs in. Mr. Joyner wasn’t asked for anything.”

Stewart noted that Hargrow and Contreras were cleared two weeks ago, but haven’t played due to nagging injuries. Joyner Jr. and Spruill, who both reside with Shelby Joyner, were the last of the group to be exonerated earlier this week.

When reached for comment earlier this week, acting Pleasant Valley Superintendent Charlene Brennan said that the district would not be making any comments. “Unfortunately due to confidentiality regarding students and investigations we are not able to comment,” Brennan said.

Attempts to contact Toth were redirected to Brennan.