A story in Saturday’s Journal about a hearing on reinstatement of Bill Mason as Falls High School boys and girls golf coach reported inaccuracies, according to Mason.

The June 18 hearing was prompted by the Falls School Board’s decision at the May 20 meeting to place Mason on paid suspension from the position.

The board action was prompted by an incident involving Mason, who gave in May a ride to a passenger in the school van while transporting five members of the boys golf team back to International Falls from a golf meet.

The June 18 hearing, which began closed at Mason’s request, was later opened to the public at his request. Journal staff left the meeting when the closed hearing began because the public is prohibited from attending closed sessions of the board and was unaware that the session had been reopened to the public.

Falls Superintendent Nordy Nelson provided to The Journal details of the hearing that resulted in no action taken by the board. Based on Mason’s request for a hearing on the issue, the board agreed to revisit in August Mason’s reinstatement as golf coach for the 2014 season.

Mason told The Journal Monday that he transported the passenger “only five or six miles” from a fast food restaurant in Cohasset, not the 16 reported by The Journal, and then Mason said he dropped the passenger off at the “Highway 6 cut off” just outside Deer River.

“I did not drop (the passenger) off at a casino,” Mason said. “He mentioned he was going to play black jack, but I don’t know where he went after I dropped him off.”

While Nelson told The Journal he stands by what he originally reported about the hearing, he said the issue is more about Mason allowing the passenger into the vehicle than where he was dropped off.

The Journal, based on Nelson’s comments about the meeting, inaccurately reported that two parents spoke against Mason’s reinstatement during the hearing, according to Mason.

Mason said the parents spoke against him being on paid suspension.

“They never said they wanted me to lose my job,” he said. “Both parents (during the hearing) stated to the school board they wanted me to keep my coaching job.”

In an email to The Journal, a parent who spoke during the hearing said she didn’t say she wanted Mason to lose his job, however emailed The Journal: “We actually were hoping that since (the school board) suspended him this year that they could do it without pay or it wasn’t much of a punishment. I said ‘That we teach our children that for all wrong doing there is a consequence and he should have a consequence for his action and being suspended with pay was not it.’”

Nelson told The Journal the two parents explained they were upset the incident happened and that their child “could have been in danger.”