The Gilroy Unified School District has launched an investigation
into events surrounding the arrest of fired Gilroy High School
track coach Alvin Harrison on DUI charges while on a school
athletic field trip in southern Californ
The Gilroy Unified School District has launched an investigation into events surrounding the arrest of fired Gilroy High School track coach Alvin Harrison, of Hollister, on DUI charges while on a school athletic field trip in southern California.
“We have our legal counsel conducting the investigation into the whole matter,” GUSD Superintendent Debbie Flores said Wednesday. “In order to keep this as independent and as objective as possible, the attorney handling the investigation, I can assure you, is very new to this situation, has a very fresh perspective and hasn’t been influenced. We truly want an independent, as much as possible, assessment of the facts and what happened, and most importantly, what we need to change in our process.”
The process under the most scrutiny is the procedure of checking to verify if coaches have valid driver’s licenses, an act that had been delegated to the athletic directors.
“The process of checking for licenses, with coaches, has been a side-based process. That is going to be revised. I can tell you that,” Flores said. “What we’ve learned is that’s a process that needs to be handled by human resources. And we are going to handle that process from now on.”
Harrison, 37, remains in an Orange County jail facing felony DUI charges and a misdemeanor charge for driving with a suspended license charges. He entered a plea of not guilty to all charges.
The California Highway Patrol says Harrison hit another vehicle from behind on state Highway 73 causing it to overturn and sending two people to the hospital on April 7. No GHS students were in the van at the time. Harrison’s twin brother, Calvin, was injured as a passenger and Santa Ana resident Eriberto Garcia, 33, was taken to the hospital after his van overturned and veered across two lanes and into the center divide following the collision.
CHP Officer Devon Boatman said officers at the scene established that Harrison, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, reached speeds of 80 to 85 mph as he attempted to make a lane change from the center lane into the right lane at 8:59 p.m. His blood alcohol content at the time of the accident measured .16, twice the legal limit, , according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office
Flores said the district is already looking into a license validity check similar to what is already in place when a district employee is considered for hire, including a criminal background check. Harrison did have a full background check and was fingerprinted during the hiring process, but Flores said no information regarding a suspended license surfaced.
“Criminal checks are a given. Any employee of our district goes through not only the initial criminal check, but then we have an ongoing process,” Flores said. “If someone is hired and has a clean criminal record but then does something later while they are our employee, we immediately get a notice. We have learned through this that we also need to institute a similar process for licenses.”
Flores said anyone “remotely involved” in the incident will be interviewed as part of the investigation.
“We are literally in the middle of the interview process. About six interviews have been conducted, including myself,” Flores said. “So we are thoroughly investigating this. I expect to have a set of recommendations soon for our board.”
Flores re-confirmed that GHS Athletic Director Jack Daley rented the van that Harrison drove, but added that the rental company knew other drivers would be using the van and did not ask for licenses.
“I don’t have the form, and I don’t have the exact wording, but the rental car company knew that there were other drivers,” she said. “They did know that. They did not ask to see the licenses of the other drivers. We verified that.”
Flores also said that she did not believe Daley or GHS principal Marco Sanchez had any knowledge of Harrison’s suspended license.
“I don’t believe they knew, but again we are still conducting the investigation,” Flores said. “Knowing their high integrity level, I can’t imagine that they knew.”
Andres Sinohui, an employee at Hertz located on 10th Street in Gilroy, said that some companies have an agreement with Hertz when a rental is for business purposes that co-workers of the rentee are authorized to drive the vehicle without being present to provide a valid driver’s license at the time of the rental.
Harrison’s case went through a pretrial hearing Tuesday morning, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office and the case will move forward to a preliminary hearing Thursday.
