In a story that any soap opera writer would be proud to have written, a real life drama is taking shape on Long Island that has all the ingredients to make a great movie of the week.

The quiet little long Island suburban communities of Merrick and Bellmore recently exploded into a full-fledged drama, and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Recently, The Mepham High School Football coach was exposed of having an affair with one of the students' mothers, but that is not even half of the story.

Mepham High School serves Long Island's South Shore towns of Merrick and Bellmore it was made infamous in August 2003, when it was reported that, while at a football training camp, at least three members of the football team were hazed by their teammates.

The hazing included anally penetrating the young men with foreign objects, including broom handles, pine cones, and golf balls.

The team's season was canceled early, and two coaches were transferred to administrative positions. The incident briefly garnered national notice, including a protest from the members of Westboro Baptist Church in October 2003.

So it could not have come as too much of a shock to the school board when they became aware that the Mepham High school football program was once again being linked with another sex scandal. Thankfully, this time the story does not involve any of the children attending the school.

This latest scandal does, however involve Anthony Cracco the Attendance Dean and football coach of Mepham High School and Laura Raheb a mother of one of the students attending the school and is assumed to be the same Laura Raheb who is a real estate agent with Select A Home Island South Realty Corp in Merrick, New York.

The two, who were both married at the time, were caught going hot and heavy inside Mr. Cracco's black SUV that was parked in a far off, out-of-the-way corner of the LIRR Merrick train station parking lot.

Michael Raheb the former husband of Laura, was understandably upset that his wife was caught having sex with another man, but, what drove him to bring this to the school's attention beyond the understandable need for vengeance was the fact that his oldest daughter is a senior at the same High School that Mr. Cracco is in, but he also had two other daughters that would be attending the school in the near future as well.

The thought of his daughters knowing the private details of her parents' divorce would now have to everyday, silently endure seeing the man who broke up their parents' marriage, made Mr. Raheb looked into Cracco's life to see if he broke any rules of conduct that most schools had for their employees.

The more Raheb researched Cracco the more he became disgusted with this man. Not only did he get caught having sex with his wife, Cracco was having sex with her while Cracco's own wife was sitting at home pregnant with his child.

Mr Raheb had a private meeting with Mepham High school Principal Michael Harrington, when he felt the principle was excusing Cracco's abhorrent behavior and showing not the least bit of concern with Cracco's after school activities. Raheb decided that he needed to bring this situation to the school board itself.

Mr Raheb having already familiarized himself with the School District employee handbook, meticulously documented every article of the handbook that he felt Cracco violated. He sent a registered letter informing the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District Board of Education of Mr Cracco's behavior.

In the letter were the documented violations, but also Raheb's personal concern that Mr. Cracco was hired by the tax paying community and they should be made aware of his actions. Mr. Cracco is in a situation where he, as many teachers are, are in a position that helps shape our childrens' values as well as minds, while they grow into adulthood. Two of those lessons taught by so many great teachers are morality and judgment, two things Mr Cracco has proven to be more than lacking in.

Mr. Raheb believes that this story should be told so the community can judge whether this man who had shown himself to having a serious lack of moral judgment for cheating on his pregnant wife should be allowed to continue in his present position of authority over the communities children. To add to his lack of scruples Cracco also lied to many people when he used 'after school' activities as an excuse to create time. and also setting up a plausible situation to have his sexual encounters with Laura Raheb.

When the board was officially notified of Mr. Raheb's complaint about Mr. Cracco's actions, the town's board was fully aware of how another Mephan high school Football program sex scandal would once again stain the community, and may even threaten their chairs. The board knew, even if they did the right thing, if the school's football coach were to be suddenly let go, or even removed from the team, there would be many questions from the community as to why this happened and the board felt they were just not prepared to answer them.

The board believed their only way out was to quickly claim that the situation had been investigated and incredibly finding no wrongdoing on Mr Cracco's part. If that was it, then Mr. Raheb would have been understandably upset about the outcome, but it would have left him little options to move the matter forward.

But the board did not end there, they took the unprecedented step of claiming Mr. Raheb was actually guilty of harassment toward their football coach and banned Mr. Raheb from the school grounds or any school activity, going as far as forbidding Mr. Rehab from attending his daughters graduation at the end of that school year.

The boards audacity to not only circle the wagons for one of their own and excuse away his behavior, but to ban a father from his daughters own graduation is beyond the pale. Mr. Raheb, frustrated with the board's 'sweep-it-under-the-rug' attitude, believed part of the board's ruling was racially motivated because, misleadingly his last name sounded 'Muslim,' so, he refused to let this situation go gently into that good night.

So outraged by what had transpired, he did what any good father would do... He rented out a huge U-haul truck, spending whatever it took, he plastered it from bumper to bumper with a vinyl graphic that displayed a huge picture of the football coach, complete with not only information of the affair but also a warning to others that no matter if his pregnant wife was home alone, it would not slow down Cracco's search for additional 'after school projects.'