BATON ROUGE – A state court of appeals sided with a former football player turned principal and found he should not have been fired after using a stick to break up a fight at an area high school three years ago.

Calvin Nicholas, a former NFL wide receiver, was principal at Scotlandville High when he used what he described as a walking stick to get a group of kids to stop fighting. The incident was captured on video and Nicholas was suspended and later fired.

In an interview with WBRZ at the time, Nicholas said teenagers had become out-of-control and he was trying to keep order.

"It's several kids vs. one kid or several kids vs. several kids. That is the culture I'm trying to diffuse at Scotlandville," he said in an interview.

Nicholas and his attorney, Jill Craft, fought the 2015 firing.

Friday, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals found the school system erred in his firing and determined the use of the stick not to be corporal punishment.

“Based on our review of the record, there is no rational basis for the School Board' s determination that Dr. Nicholas intended to inflict corporal punishment on a student,” the court wrote in its decision.

The court also questioned the placement of the school system’s corporal punishment policy in a student handbook - “arguably not applicable to educators and administrators.”

Additionally, the court said there did not appear to be proper training from the school system on how to break up a fight.

The court said Nicholas should be reinstated as principal and should get back pay.

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