Deion Sanders Fired From Own Prep School After Weird Assault Allegation

Deion Sanders has been fired from Prime Prep Academy, the charter school he co-founded last year in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A faculty member is alleging Deion assaulted him, but Sanders has not been charged with any crime. Sanders says there was a confrontation, but no assault occurred.

The confrontation happened yesterday, when the two men argued about the school's athletes performing poorly academically (we don't have details about the specific academic problems at issue). Jefferson, the school's chief financial officer, says Sanders grabbed him by the throat, collar, and jacket and threw him to the ground. He told the Dallas Morning News that he had bruises on his neck, back, hip, and ribs, and a sore throat. By his account, four or five administrators had to pull Sanders off of him.

Sanders says it was just a heated exchange. "We locked up with one another, but he was not physically assaulted." He also told WPAA-TV, "Jefferson was not beat down. He was not hit. He was none of that." He went on Twitter immediately after whatever happened and further denied the assault, calling Jefferson a "fake administrator".

The school's board met in an emergency meeting last night, and today issued a press release saying, "Effective immediately, Deion Sanders is no longer an employee or representative for Prime Prep Academy."

Prime Prep has faced a number of problems since its inception, from issues with its original lease, to a perception that it's essentially a huge athletics department with a few classrooms bolted onto the side. Despite that, and questions over whether its teams would even be eligible to play last season, it has attracted some top recruits, like Emmanuel Mudiay, a 6-foot-5 point guard who's ranked number 5 in the country by ESPN. So academic performance and eligibility is probably a pretty big deal in those cases.

[ Dallas Morning News, Dallas Observer]