“I hope the coach wasn’t fired as a teacher, but only as a coach.”
I have to disagree, xzins. I think it is precisely that he failed as a teacher - a High School teacher. As purely a coach with purely the job of winning the game and nothing more, he did great. Teaching however, involves ethical considerations that go far beyond winning the game. And that’s where this guy not only failed, but showed he never crawled out of the swamp himself.
No, I don’t think a single mistake should cost a man his livelihood. He’ll probably lose a bit of a cash contract when he loses the coaching position, but this incident has nothing to do with his knowledge of history/math/science or whatever it is he teaches.
It is not a legal/ethical issue (theft, sex with students, etc.) It is confined to a lesson about when to be merciful, and therefore, there are no legal aspects involved.