I wouldn't either-- but if it was a guy who I was already looking to get rid of for other reasons, I might.

Anyway, it's pure speculation on my part as to what actually happened and whether these email addresses were obtained initially from school records or not.  If there's a lawsuit, the courts will have to sort that out.

What I do think is this:  It does appear that at least some of these parents were not particular friends of this assistant coach, leading me to believe that any prior correspondence between the coach and them was in his official capacity as coach, so at the very least, I think this guy showed very poor judgment.  Unfortunatey for him, his poor judgment caused his boss to get a lot of complaints from angry parents.  Now, it appears that the guy wants to garner public sympathy and try his case in the court of public opinion-- putting more heat on his (former) boss-- without acknowledging his own obvious poor judgment.  He may have a legal case to get his job back, but I can't muster up much sympathy for the guy.