Jordan Blackburn officially announced his resignation as the high school basketball coach at Memorial High School in Ohio on Friday. This shakeup comes less than a week after a student contacted the St. Marys Police Department with a complaint against him.
He was placed on leave before the eventual departure.
Although the details of this ongoing police investigation are unclear because it remains ongoing, one local parent made public allegations. The high school basketball coach allegedly put his son in danger.
Where is Memorial High School?
Before we get into all of the minutiae, lets start at the beginning.
Memorial High School is located in St. Marys, Ohio. It serves approximately 850 students in grades 6-12. St. Marys sits ~20 miles from the Indiana border, ~65 miles north of Dayton. The total population hovers somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000.
Although the official name of the high school is Memorial, it is most often referred to as St. Marys. Its mascot is the Roughriders. They compete as a member of the Western Buckeye League.
Jordan Blackburn was hired as the boys varsity basketball coach at Memorial in June, 2024. He previously served as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Ohio Wesleyan University and coached boys basketball at Delaware Hayes High School for 16 years, including 10 years as the head coach.
His second season as head coach at Memorial was scheduled to begin on Nov. 28. This sudden resignation will obviously create a shakeup.
High school basketball scandal hits St. Marys, Ohio.
A Memorial High School student contacted the St. Marys Police Department in regards to a complaint against Blackburn on Sept. 29. Chief of Police Luke Turpin was able to confirm Blackburn’s identity and the ongoing investigation to The Evening Leader.
Memorial placed Jordan Blackburn on administrative leave when the initial complaint was filed. St. Marys City Schools officially accepted his resignation on Oct. 3.
Because this investigation is ongoing, police are not able to comment further. However, a parent that appears to be attached to the scandal shared additional context on social media.
Before we go any further — I do not know whether these claims are true. I am only able to present my findings. These are allegations. This is only one account of what supposedly went down.
It all started when WCSM Radio posted to Facebook on the morning of Oct. 2. The post was vague.
“St Marys School Employee resigns amid police investigation.”
A man who claims to be the father of a student at Memorial replied to the post:
“He should be behind bars for what he did. He also should’ve been fired instead of getting to resign”
I can confirm that the commenter’s son previously played football at St. Marys Memorial in 2022. I am unable to confirm whether his son currently plays or previous played basketball at the school. Memorial’s athletic department websites, including team rosters, do not load. I don’t know how long that has been the case.
Allegations on Facebook correspond with the timeline of the ongoing investigation.
The man who claims to be a parent made two separate, public posts on the day after the initial complaint against Jordan Blackburn was filed with St. Marys police. The first post went live at 6:54 a.m. on Sept. 30.
“So now Teachers are giving kids drugs. I just wanted to warn parents about this. I’m not sure what my next step will be, I’ve already contacted the police/detective about it. I don’t know what the hell this teacher thought when giving my kids drugs. I had my son record the situation and thankfully it worked because he will never teach again. It’s crazy that the people who you’re supposed to trust is the one harming them. I’m not sure if I should contact a lawyer or what. Can’t get into details due to it being an open investigation. Thanks everyone”
The second post went live approximately 12 hours later.
“That teacher/ basketball coach should be behind bars. I feel like that is something serious because if my son would’ve listened to him I’d probably be burying my son. He would’ve fell asleep and possibly not have woken up. Even have him on recording admitting to it and giving him the pills. Thankfully he came to me and we made a plan to catch him giving kids pills. I need a good lawyer most definitely I’m not letting this slide and might even involve the news to expose him like needed. I’m still in disbelief that a teacher is doing this to my son, you only see stuff like this in movies not real life.”
A third post creates even more confusion.
“So I’m going to clear the air, my son had not taken pills before this nor was he buying them from him. So here’s how it went Friday Sept 26th my son and his friend was talking to each other and my son was saying how he’s not been sleeping and is stressed out because of an issue between my son and his girlfriend, well that teacher was ease dropping what they were saying and later called my son to the hallway which is when the teacher tells him he has something to help with his issue and decides to give my son the pills. For some godly reason my son listened to him and took the pills when he got home from school. My wife went to wake him up and realized he wasn’t himself. So then I sat him down and started asking all kinds of questions and that’s when he told me that the teacher gave him the pills. I lost it, that’s when I told him we need proof of the teacher doing it and that following Monday is when he gave him more pills and was recorded doing it so I took the recordings to the police. We’re not sure why he gave my son his wedding ring, still haven’t figured that out weird as h— though.”
As of this writing, those are the three most recent public posts from the man whose son appears to attend Memorial High School. Neither St. Marys City Schools, St. Marys Police Department or Jordan Blackburn are able to comment further. They cannot confirm whether these two suspicious Facebook posts are related to the sudden resignation. This is an active investigation.