More than four years after being fired from his job as Winston-Salem State University head coach, Kienus Boulware is hoping for a favorable resolution.
The current Alabama A&M defensive coordinator has filed a petition with the North Carolina Supreme Court for a discretionary review of how Winston-Salem State University handled his firing in April 2019, according to documents obtained by The Carolina Journal.
“The underlying subject matter of the appeal has significant public interest in the field of public employment and involves legal principles of major significance to the State, but especially for the 48,000 employees of the University of North Carolina System, who depend on the work of non-judicial committees to find facts regarding to the circumstances that their employer utilized to justify their termination from employment,” the petition reads, in part.
Boulware was fired as WSSU’s head coach following an altercation that went from the football field to a dorm room in which there was suspicion of a gun being involved. Boulware and an assistant coach were said to have de-fused the situation. Boulware, however, was accused by school officials of not notifying authorities of this and subsequently fired.
“Coach Boulware asked whether a weapon was present and all occupants of the room denied the presence of a weapon or that one was involved in the altercation,” the petition continued. “No weapon was visible or located.”
Despite this claim, the university argued that Boulware failed to fulfill his duties as an official Campus Security Authority under the federal Clery Act. He was subsequently fired.
The petition to the Supreme Court claims that Boulware did not violate the Clery Act. This comes after the NC Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in favor of Winston-Salem State University last month.
“Boulware fails to identify any conflicts in the evidence or testimony and does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence as not supporting any specific findings of fact,” Judge John Tyson wrote.
Boulware led Winston-Salem State University to three CIAA championship appearances in his first three seasons as head coach after taking over for Connell Maynor in 2014. WSSU won back-to-back CIAA titles in 2015 and 2016 under his leadership, going 35-18. It has gone just 10-18 since his firing. Boulware joined Maynor’s staff at Alabama A&M in 2021 as defensive line coach and took over as defensive coordinator in 2022.