FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — Former Bullard High School football coach Don Arax and Fresno Unified School District did not reach a settlement Monday during mediation in a years long defamation lawsuit, according to Arax’s attorney, Brian Whelan.
The mediation was scheduled for Aug. 31 as the parties tried to find common ground on remaining questions of damages and liability.
Whelan confirmed to FOX26 following the mediation that Arax did not settle with the district.
The lawsuit stems from statements Fresno Unified Trustee Keshia Thomas made in 2022 concerning Arax, who was then Bullard High School’s head football coach.
Thomas said during a May 2022 interview with GV Wire that her son went to football practice “where he has Arax calling him” the N-word and decided he would not play for Bullard.
Arax later sued Thomas and Fresno Unified for defamation.
The case has drawn renewed attention in recent weeks after Thomas publicly apologized to Arax and his family, saying she has since learned that the information she relied on when making the statements was not accurate.
“I have now learned that the information I relied upon concerning Mr. Arax was not accurate,” Thomas wrote in her Aug. 17 statement.
Whelan previously rejected Thomas’ characterization of the statement as an apology.
“This is not an apology,” Whelan told FOX26. “It is the latest version of a story that finally ran out of places to go.”
Thomas’ son, Albert Alford Jr., also said in a sworn declaration that Arax never used a racial slur toward him and that he never told Thomas or anyone else that Arax had done so.
The district told FOX26 earlier this month that through June, it had paid $235,330 in defense fees and another $134,421 toward Thomas’ defense costs: a combined $369,751.
Fresno Unified previously said its Board of Education would reconsider whether it would continue supporting Thomas’ attorneys’ fees after what the district described as “new information” that had come to light.
Thomas has rejected calls from the Fresno Teachers Association to resign from the school board and remains a candidate for Fresno City Council.
FOX26 has reached out to Fresno Unified for comment on the outcome of Monday’s mediation.