A longtime Fordson High School wrestling coach whose contract was not renewed last year filed a federal lawsuit against Dearborn Public Schools and Fordson Principal Imad Fadlallah on Monday, claiming he was terminated because of his Christian religious beliefs.

The suit was filed in Detroit by a Livonia law firm and the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center.

The Thomas More Law Center, according to its website, is a “public interest law firm dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.” The group provides counsel in a number of national lawsuits involving conservative causes and conflicts with Muslims.

Fordson Principal Imad Fadlallah

Fadlallah terminated Gerald Marszalek from his position as Fordson wrestling coach in 2008 after he allegedly failed to keep a volunteer assistant coach away from the team. The assistant coach, a Christian evangelical pastor who was accused of using his position to try to convert Muslim students, had been ordered by Fadlallah not to associate with the team.
According to the lawsuit, Marszalek could not keep the pastor, Trey Hancock, away from team events because his son, Paul Hancock, was the team’s star wrestler.

Gerald Marszalek

“Marszalek… was unceremoniously terminated from his position by Defendant’s School District and Fadlallah because he is a Christian, because of his expression, and because of his associations,” reads the complaint filed in U.S. district court.
“Defendant Fadlallah, a Muslim who was angry that a Christian minister was serving as a volunteer coach at Fordson, despite the fact that Hancock had never proselytized while volunteering at Fordson, terminated Hancock’s volunteer status because of his Christian beliefs, which Defendant Fadlallah had deemed inconsistent with his own Muslim beliefs.”

Hancock lost his job as a volunteer assistant coach in 2005 after he allegedly introduced Muslim students to Christianity during an off-campus wrestling camp for the team.

The school district has not yet offered direct comment on the lawsuit, but officials have said that coaches are “at-will” employees, hired and fired by principals, and that teachers’ union contracts mandate that active teachers are given priority when filling coaching positions. Fordson chemistry teacher Ralph Hargraves now serves as the school’s wrestling coach. Marszalek, 64, retired from teaching physical education in 2002.

The lawsuit claims that Fadlallah and the district violated Marszalek’s constitutional rights to free religious exercise, free speech, expressive association, equal protection and due process.

It seeks financial compensation and lost wages.