Maureen Decker Statement Regarding Tiger Woods' Kindergarten Experience

When Tiger Woods went on the talk show circuit I was shocked, saddened and disappointed by his false accusations of physical and racial abuse on his first day of school in my kindergarten class. I first heard Tiger’s statements when he was interviewed by Barbara Walters. Shortly after that interview I spoke with some teachers at Cerritos Elementary School, the principal, and the president of the Savanna Elementary School District Teachers Association. They all felt as I did that the accusations were false. After phone calls and personal contact by friends and family concerning Tiger’s false accusations, it started to affect me in a physical manner. I dealt with migraine headaches, elevated blood pressure, and colitis attacks. A few teachers at Cerritos Elementary tried to contact Tiger with complaints about his false accusations which cast a shadow over me and the school. His reply to them was a short postcard message thanking them for their kind remarks.  Their remarks to him were not kind. They were furious.

The accusations against me were brought up again when Tiger’s infidelities came to light. My friends and relatives started reminding me of how he slandered me and the school. I am still feeling the stress of the allegations. I have tried numerous times to get through to Tiger or his representatives to ask for an explanation and an apology, but no one ever returned my calls.

That is why today, I am asking Tiger for a private and public apology to put my mind at ease and set the record straight. If Tiger is truly following a twelve-step program for so called “sex addiction”, he needs to apologize to all those he has hurt by his words and actions, and that includes me, his kindergarten teacher. I always cared about Tiger, as I did and still do for all of my students.  I hope that he will care about the harm he has done to me as well.

I hope this time he will contact me personally and be the decent and honest person that his mom and his teachers always expected him to be.

Maureen Decker
Represented by Attorney Gloria Allred
April 2, 2010