Person I Haven’t Seen In Three Years Tried To Get Me Fired.

Location: Washington State

Some backstory: I have coached middle school basketball at a private school for the past four years. The Athletic Director who hired me (I will call her AD) had a child in the same class as one of my kids so I knew her on a very surface level way, but we always got along. Back in 2023 we had an away game where the other team didn’t provide a ref as required, so a staff member filled in and it just got very out of hand. I talked to AD about it and she kind of blew me off, so I ended up emailing the other schools athletic director and just told him that I felt things had gotten out of control and I hope in the future they are able to provide a ref or else I wouldn’t play them due to safety concerns. I probably overstepped a little, but like I said AD blew off my concerns and I was sure to be very professional and polite in my email.

A few days later I got a very long email from AD telling me that she has received a lot of complaints about my coaching and how I was out of control. She went so far as to say that she had already talked to the school principal and that if I did anything she didn’t like in the next game she would call the police and have me escorted off of the property. I was so taken aback I didn’t respond, but instead had a meeting with the school principal. I told the principal that I didn’t feel comfortable coaching anymore if what she was saying was correct. He was as surprised as me and told me that wasn’t true at all and there hadn’t been any complaints made about me. In fact, all of the parents were willing to go on the record to say that they were very happy with how things were going. I ended up continuing to coach, with the principal acting as my assistant for the rest of that season just to be a witness, and I actually still coach there to this day. AD left the school at the end of that year (not sure if by choice or if she was fired) and withdrew her kid, and I have not seen or spoken to her since, nor do we have any mutual connections.

Recently my boss called me up because he received an email from AD, basically telling him that I am a horrible person and have no character and shouldn’t be trusted. He asked what the deal was and I told him that I was blindsided by this because I hadn’t seen or spoken to her in almost three years. He called her back and during their conversation she told him that I assaulted her. He asked for more info and she told him that during a basketball game, she came over to tell me to calm down and I shoved her to the ground, evidently in front of all of the players, fans, refs, etc. He said he pressed her for details as to who he could talk to that witnessed this and she quickly backtracked and told him she didn’t want to bother people over something that happened years ago. My work ended up opening a personnel complaint on me that was cleared, because she was clearly being untruthful.

Normally I’d let this go but I recently learned that her kid is going to be attending the same high school as mine, and I know our paths will cross. Am I able to obtain any sort of restraining order against her? Is there any other legal recourse I have?

Edited: Made legal question more specific.