Former Mead football players file lawsuit against school district for alleged assaults, bullying, racial discrimination

Nov. 13—Four former Mead High School football players and their parents are suing the Mead School District for failing to protect the players and report the assaults, harassment and racial discrimination the four student-athletes, who are Black, reportedly experienced at the hands of their teammates.

The plaintiffs filed tort notices this past spring on their intent to sue.

The lawsuit says two of the players were assaulted by their white teammates with battery-powered massage guns at 2022 and 2023 Mead summer football camps at Eastern Washington University.

One of the white teammates told the other two Black players in the lawsuit they were "next" after the first 2023 assault, the lawsuit says.

The same older white teammates were looking to assault one of the other two Black players at the camp, but a white teammate refused to give up the player's location and was assaulted with the massage gun instead, according to the complaint.

Players filmed the 2023 assaults, and the videos circulated in the Mead community.

Reports and videos of the assaults were reported the following months to Mead staff, including football coach Keith Stamps and athletic director John Barrington, who retired in March.

The 37-page complaint for damages filed Friday by Sweetser Law Office in Spokane and Connelly Law Offices, which has locations throughout the state, claims school administrators and employees ignored district polices and state law by failing to report or stop the conduct despite video evidence and reports.

"They inexplicably failed to inform the victims' parents about the harassment in anything resembling a timely manner," the complaint says. "The result: a group of white football players went unchecked as they tormented Black teammates."

Mead Superintendent Travis Hanson wrote in a statement that Mead does not tolerate discriminatory harassment in its schools.

"We are aware of the lawsuit that has been filed and take these allegations seriously," Hanson wrote. "As this matter is now in litigation, we will not be commenting publicly about the numerous inaccuracies in the lawsuit or on the specifics of the case. Our attorney has asked that we allow the facts to come forward in the context of the litigation. We recognize that litigation can be an inherently difficult process for all participants. The district does not want to make the process more difficult for the involved students or their families by debating this matter publicly. Any further comments will be at the discretion of the attorneys representing the district."

After the June 2023 assaults, three of the Black players endured intimidation and routine racial slurs, the complaint says. One of them was sexually assaulted in the school locker room by two of the white assailants at the camp.

Eight months after the 2023 assaults, school officials first informed the victims' parents that their children had been assaulted, the complaint says. The parents were stunned to learn their kids were assaulted and that school officials had known and said nothing.

One football parent reported the assaults to Mead in August 2023. The parent's son reported that one of the coaches knew about the assault and, according to the parent's email, the coach told the players, "in our day we used a stick, you guys have gone soft," according to the lawsuit.

In a December meeting among Stamps, Barrington and Mead High Principal Kimberly Jensen, Jensen's notes indicated that Barrington stated the incidents didn't rise to the level of hazing, and that it was "boys being boys," the complaint alleges.

In January, the suit says one of the Black players was punched and sprayed with water in a Mead wrestling team van in the school parking lot by one of the alleged football assailants. The player had a panic attack and started hyperventilating. The wrestling coach called the incident "just little stuff," the lawsuit says.

The player's mother reported the incident to school administration and the coach, but they did nothing, according to the lawsuit. She reported the assault to Crime Check, and the mother was told the wrestler who punched him would be held from wrestling practice for two weeks.

Instead, the wrestling coach pressured the victim to agree to reduce the sanction to a single week, the plaintiffs say.

In a January meeting with a concerned football parent, the lawsuit says Jensen's notes indicated there was a clear disparity in how Mead downplayed the assaults because the victims were boys, including her note that said, "if this had been a girl involved we'd call it gang rape."

The school district conducted an investigation shortly after.

In a letter this spring to district parents, district officials said a significant number of student-athletes took part (both directly and indirectly) in inappropriate and offensive behavior that involved elements of hazing, including acts of intimidation and targeted harassment.

"Details about what happened at team camp came in bits and pieces over an inordinately long period of time, and ultimately, the severity of what took place last summer was fully realized at a time months removed from the actual incidents," the letter said.

All four of the student plaintiffs transferred from Mead because of the harassment from teammates and other students, the complaint says. One of the students was seen researching on a school computer how to die by suicide, while another student was given an athletic suspension for failing to report the assaults to Mead staff.

The complaint says the student was given no warning, a chance to defend himself, nor was he informed of any wrongdoing before the suspension was handed down. In fact, school administrators told him and his mother he "did nothing wrong."

Four Mead football players were not allowed to play in the rivalry "Battle of the Bell" game against Mt. Spokane High in September because one of the victims transferred to Mt. Spokane and would be potentially playing in that game, according to a court ruling.

Sweetser Law Office is representing the Mt. Spokane player in another complaint against Mead.

"These clients, more than anything, feel a real responsibility to make sure that this doesn't happen again or to anyone else," Colin Prince, of Connelly Law Offices, said about the lawsuit.