Accountability is what a young man wants from a school and district he says did nothing to protect him and others from sexual abuse by a high school cheer coach. That’s why Isaac Yates has set his own pain and fear aside and put himself in a public spotlight despite the shame he’s felt over what happened to him.
Yates says he never wanted to be intimate with his former Olympic high school coach, Tyson Ebert, who pleaded guilty and was convicted on five counts of first-degree sexual misconduct of a minor.
Yates’ mother, Lacey Tapia, now homeschools her younger children because she says the school violated the trust parents expect from them. “There’s no sleepovers. There’s no going anywhere,” Tapia says, “and it’s really put a damper on their childhood in a way, and I just don’t trust anybody anymore.”
Yates is now, himself, a brand new parent, and he says what happened to him leaves him terrified it might happen to his child. Yates says, “I hope to God that never happens to him because I would feel terrible…because I would feel like I wasn’t there for him, to protect him, and that would just destroy me.”
The family has filed a tort claim against the Central Kitsap School District, which sent Northwest Newsradio the following statement:
“The Central Kitsap School District cannot comment on the pending litigation other than to note that protecting our students’ safety is of the utmost importance to us. We hold all employees to the same standards of professional conduct, and we treat all allegations of inappropriate conduct seriously.”
You can read the claim the family is filing by clicking the link below:
