A nine-year veteran boys basketball coach at Lehighton Area School District has resigned, alleging that a school board member used a parent’s playing-time complaint to publicly humiliate him, directed the superintendent to surveil his team and conducted what he described as an independent investigation that bypassed the district’s own chain of command.

The allegations were laid out in a letter written by coach Trevor Miller and read aloud at Monday’s school board meeting. In it, Miller accused board member David Bradley of trying to discredit him and called on Bradley to publicly apologize — to him and to a student whose photograph was displayed without consent at a prior board meeting.

“David Bradley has never once met me in my nine years as the head boys basketball coach,” Miller wrote. “He has never once been to one of our games. He has never spoken to me or watched me coach in my entire tenure at Lehighton. However, after a parent’s direct email to him, I became David Bradley’s target.”

Chain of events

The chain of events Miller described began Jan. 8, when Lehighton defeated Bangor in a home game, 67-35. The following day, a player identified only as “Player X” turned in his uniform and quit the team. Miller said he offered to meet with the player, who declined. Later, he received a blunt email from the player’s parent: “What’s your issue with my son?”

Miller responded Jan. 10, copying Athletic Director Kyle Spotts, and offered to meet with the family to discuss any concerns. The parent’s next email, sent the same day, copied both Spotts and Bradley. Miller wrote that the message “read as though this entire situation was over a playing time issue.”

Two weeks later, Bradley appeared at the Jan. 26 board meeting with a photograph taken from a Dec. 11, 2025 game against Pen Argyl. The photo showed Miller standing with the team’s three-year senior captain. Bradley had it enlarged to approximately 2 feet by 3 feet.

“Is this who we want coaching our students?” Bradley said at the meeting, according to Miller’s letter.

Neither Miller nor the student in the photograph had been notified the image would be displayed publicly. Miller wrote that Superintendent Jason Moser subsequently told Bradley he would reach out to the student to get his perspective. That conversation, Miller wrote, never happened.

“Mr. Moser never reached out to the player nor myself to discuss the photograph,” Miller’s letter stated.

Three days later, on Jan. 29, Moser was added to the team’s Hudl account — a platform used by coaches and players to review game film, track statistics and scout opponents.

“I was informed that David Bradley instructed Jason Moser to have access to Hudl in order to watch practices and games of our team,” Miller wrote.

On Feb. 18, Moser contacted Miller by text message asking to meet that same afternoon, before practice, at the Elementary Center. It was the first time the two men had met, Miller noted, since Moser was hired in late 2024. At the meeting, Moser recorded Miller’s responses by typing them into a computer. The questions covered a referee’s PIAA report from an ejection five years earlier, whether Miller had ever used profane language in front of players and the specifics of the Player X situation.

Miller said he later learned that Spotts had no prior knowledge the meeting was taking place or what would be asked.

“After my meeting with Mr. Moser, I felt like the questions asked were loaded questions that diminished my nine years devoted to coaching at the Lehighton Area School District,” Miller wrote. “It is unclear why Mr. Moser asked me those questions, and whether he was asking them for David Bradley or on his own behalf.”

According to Miller, Bradley also spoke to parents of previous basketball players “to collect information to use against me.”

Resignation

At the end of the season, Feb. 25, Miller met with Spotts and High School Principal Sue Howland and told them he intended to resign. He submitted his formal letter of resignation March 2. After the resignation, Moser told Spotts and board members he planned to reach out to Miller personally.

“Superintendent Moser never reached out to me,” Miller wrote.

Miller said the situation reflected a pattern at Lehighton and warned it would damage the district’s ability to hire coaches in the future.

“Over the past few years at Lehighton, I have seen great coaches leave the district due to similar situations that I experienced over the past two months,” Miller wrote. “With the actions of board members like David Bradley, quality coaches will not want to coach in the Lehighton School District.”

Miller also pointed to what he described as a direct contradiction of the board’s own stated principles. At a March 2024 special board meeting convened to address a similar situation involving another coach, then-board President Jeremy Glaush had made a public statement.

“The fear of retaliation, real or imagined, needs to end, with a culture of honesty, transparency and integrity in its place,” Glaush said at that meeting, according to Miller’s letter.

‘Concerning’ allegations

Bradley disputed at least one element of Miller’s account at Monday’s meeting. Miller’s letter stated that Bradley, when displaying the photograph earlier this year, asked, “Is this who we want coaching our students?” Bradley contended at the meeting that his actual words were different.

“If we can pull up the tape, it says, ‘Is this one of our coaches?’ ” Bradley said.

Board President Alex Matika said that while he had gone back and forth over whether to read Miller’s letter Monday, he ultimately felt Miller had earned the right to be heard.

“I do think out of respect for Coach Miller’s service to the district, having been in this position for nine years, that we would proceed with reading his letter,” Matika said. He added that the allegations were serious but unverified.

“These are the words of Coach Miller and the sources are not cited, but that’s a concern to me,” Matika said. “And if true, I think that these are some disturbing allegations.”

Attorney Beth Shore from Fox Rothschild LLP, who attended Monday’s meeting via telephone, advised that anything touching on personnel matters or potential litigation belonged in executive session, not open debate.

No active investigation

When asked during the meeting whether an active investigation into Miller’s conduct was underway, Moser confirmed there was not.

“No active investigation at this point in time,” Moser said.

Bradley then asked Moser whether the underlying complaint from the parent had been adjudicated.

“I’m not going to comment,” Moser said.

The board did not take formal action Monday on the allegations.

“I will write my apology, by the way, and I will give it to the board for review and reading into the record,” Bradley said.

He did not specify to whom the apology would be directed.

Miller, a Lehighton alumnus, closed his letter by describing what the district had meant to him — and what he feared it was becoming.

“The events that took place over the past two months have been extremely disheartening and have tarnished my outlook on what I always loved — the Lehighton community that supported each other and the people that make it great,” Miller wrote. “It seems that individuals like David Bradley are trying to tear that down.”