Cameroon students involved in US immigration probe: New revelations [+video]

Newly released e-mails from former Coach Randy Lee, Principal Donna Dunson, and staff members, show a pattern of the coach’s desire to recruit foreign students from the time he first started at Lake Wales High School two and a half years ago.

Lee resigned last week in the wake of the scandal that was detailed at a board meeting on Monday night.



School officials said Lee recruited foreign students to the school and lied about how they got there.

“We have never dealt with anything like this before,” said Robin Gibson, attorney for Lake Wales Charter Schools.

E-mail communication between Lee and school leaders show that the former coach constantly showed interest in recruiting international students, despite the district’s disapproval.

The school first launched an investigation in early March when four teenagers from Serbia and Cameroon showed up on campus to enroll. On average, the kids were about 6 feet, 7 inches tall.

The students were actually recruited to play ball at a prep school in Georgia, but the school folded. Through different connections, the teenagers got hooked up with Coach Lee in Lake Wales.

“In my opinion, I think he was trying to buy another state championship,” said Travis Wathen, coach of the Lake Wales Stags, an independent youth basketball team.

Wathen said many of his players also play at the school and started coming to him with concerns when a group of international students enrolled.

“They were ready to transfer. They were ready to quit the program all together…because they had seen what was happening. They felt it was very unfair,” Wathen said.

Recruiting young, foreign students is legal for private, college prep schools and it happens all over the country — it’s a big business, in fact.

Two workers for the school in Georgia, Faith Baptist Church Academy North, tell ABC Action News that the school is legitimate but it fell on hard times.

They said they wanted to move the kids to Lake Wales because Coach Lee wanted to help them get an education and ultimately play basketball.

One of the workers, Gordon Gibbons, said he thought Lake Wales High accepted international students because he knew one student from Serbia was already playing on the team.

It turns out that player may have been ineligible. Principal Donna Dunson said during the investigation, Lee admitted that he lied about how he came to the school and that the player was and still is staying with Lee in his home.

Lee is accused of paying an acquaintance to house the other four students from the school in Georgia. But Dunson wrote that the kids were staying in “deplorable” conditions and none of the boys had a bed.

All four are now living in a different home with a member of the community who offered to help provide for the kids.

Meanwhile, the local sports community is left wondering.

What kind of discipline will the team face after Lee finally admitting that a Serbian teen who played all last season actually lived in his house?

“The kids who have given it their all to be on that varsity team may not even get the chance to play for the state championship, because of something they have no control of whatsoever, and I think it’s very unfair,” Wathen said.

Randy Lee is still under investigation by the sheriff’s office but right now he is not facing any criminal charges.

Lee has not returned repeated calls for comment.