4 Black Mead High School student-athletes and their parents are suing the school for failing to protect students from racial harassment –

November 15, 2024

The lawsuit alleges that Meade’s administration knew about the attacks and did nothing to protect the students.

Four former Meade High School football players and their parents filed a lawsuit Nov. 8 against the Meade School District for failing to protect black players and take action against assaults, harassment and racial discrimination the four student-athletes allegedly faced by their peers on command

The lawsuit alleges that two of the four players were assaulted by their white teammates with battery-powered massage guns while at Eastern Washington University’s Mead summer football camps in 2022 and 2023. After the attack, white teammates who were involved told two other student athletes that they were “next.”

According to to Spokesman-ReviewThe 2023 massage gun attacks were reportedly recorded and sent around Meade High School and the surrounding community. The nearly 40-page lawsuit by Sweetser Law Offices of Spokane and Connelly Law Offices seeks damages because school administrators were allegedly informed of widespread abuse and repeatedly failed to report or act on racist behavior. Reports and videos of the assaults came in the next few months of 2023 to several Mead employees, including boys soccer coach Keith Stamps and athletic director John Barrington.

The lawsuit states, “They inexplicably failed to notify the victim’s parents of the harassment in any manner that would have brought it to a timely notice. The result: a group of white football players were left out of control as they tormented their black teammates.”

After the 2023 incident was not stopped, the white teammates allegedly continued to torture the four black students. The lawsuit describes incidents of bullying that it calls racial slurs, and even that one student was sexually assaulted in a school locker room by two white assailants. In January of that year, the lawsuit states, one of the black players was punched and doused with water while in Mead’s wrestling team’s van in the school parking lot by one of the alleged white players on the football team. The incident caused him to have a panic attack and was allegedly witnessed by a wrestling coach who called it “just a little thing.”

After the attacks in 2023, it took eight long months for school officials to tell parents of the victims that their children had been attacked, and parents of Mead students were stunned by the inaction on the part of school officials.

One of the parents claimed that they reported to Meade some incidents of racial hatred and assault in August, but the coach told the players: “In our day we used the stick; you guys have gone soft.”

At the school assembly, Meade High School Principal Kimberly Jensen said their investigation showed that the incidents reported did not rise to the level of hazing and that “boys will be boys.”

The mother of the player who was hit in the parking lot reported the incident to the school administration, but they allegedly did nothing. It wasn’t until she reported the assault to an outside source that the player who hit him was to be suspended from practice for two weeks as punishment. Even then, the wrestling coach pushed the victim to agree to reduce the already short punishment to one week. The lawsuit alleges there was a clear disregard for how the Mead administration handled the assaults because the victims were boys. One parent stated sharply: “If a girl had been involved, we would have called it a gang rape.”

All four black student plaintiffs transferred from Mead due to severe harassment from their teammates and other students, and repeated failure by the school system. The lawsuit states that one of the students researched ways to commit suicide on the school computer.

Colin Prince of Connelly Law Offices said: “These clients, above all else, feel a real responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen again or to anyone else.”

Travis Hanson, Meade’s superintendent, released a statement saying Meade does not tolerate discrimination or harassment in its district schools.

Hanson wrote: “We are aware of the lawsuit that has been filed and take these allegations seriously. Because this case is currently at trial, we will not comment publicly on the numerous inaccuracies in the lawsuit or the specifics of the case. Our attorney has asked us to release the facts in the context of the lawsuit. We recognize that litigation can be an inherently difficult process for all involved. The district does not want to complicate the process for the students involved or their families by discussing the matter publicly. Any further comment will be at the discretion of the attorneys representing the county.”

He continued, “In a letter to district parents this spring, district officials said a significant number of student-athletes engaged (both directly and indirectly) in inappropriate and offensive behavior that included elements of misconduct, including acts of intimidation and targeted harassment. »

“Details of what happened at the team camp came in bits and pieces over an extremely long period, and finally the seriousness of what happened last summer was fully realized in a period that was removed from the actual events.”