DURHAM, Conn. – When Durham Middlefield Football coach Todd Kennedy learned of repeated bullying among his fourth- through sixth-grade players, he confronted the bully and made him run a few laps.

When the boy returned from his run Kennedy commended the child for not complaining about the punishment, though the boy initially denied the bullying.

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The next day the league’s board suspended Kennedy. Board members then voted unanimously to fire him on Monday, WTNH reports.

“(One of the board members) said why did you feel that you were qualified to handle this bullying incident?” Kennedy said. “I’m like because I’m a father.”

Kennedy’s two boys played for the team until the board pulled the volunteer coach over the incident. Kennedy said he acted how he would expect a coach to react if his children were bullying other players, and noted that the league doesn’t train coaches on how to address bullying, the Durham Patch reports.

At least one parent also removed her child from the team because of the board’s decision. The board, meanwhile, is avoiding inquiries from the media about the move.

“Bullying is okay- that’s the message I got,” parent Shannon Riso told WTNH. “That’s why my son is not going to play for them. I want him to be around better role models than that.”

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Kennedy said the most difficult part of the situation is the board would not allow him to discuss his departure with the team, according to the news site.

“They never heard from me, so now you’ve got these children that I’ve been coaching since August and all of a sudden their coach just disappears,” Kennedy said.

“What I’m going to miss the most is seeing what we would have done this year, seeing if we would have gotten to the championship game,” he said.

Parents sounded off online.

“’Why did you feel that you were qualified to handle this bullying incident?’ And just how would the said board member have handled the situation?” Officer Barbrady posted in the WTNH comments. “Don’t you hate pretentious twits.”

“Like it is so hard to handle a bully incident. You either A. teach bully there is always someone bigger and stronger by using overwhelming force of violence or B. you punish the kid with some minor discomfort like running laps in hope that is all it takes so he never has to get taught by point A,” RHAL responded.

“This is how liberals deal with bullies,” Original Bob wrote. “In schools they tell the teachers to look the other way. If you don’t see it then you don’t have to do anything about it. How dare he take action to try to correct the problem.

“Running a few laps and checking in after is a good way to handle it,” he added. “He did not touch the child and let the team know that bullying would not be tolerated. Do not expect to hear from the liberal board members as to how they would handle it.”

“I’m liberal, and the coach was 100% in the right,” CDaniel countered.

“He should be the coach of the year,” Elroy wrote. “That same sideline idiot questioning the coach’s qualifications to handle the situation would have been the first one to ask why something wasn’t done if the coach had done nothing.”