Mead hazing victims asking for $20M to $50M from school district

An attorney is asking Mead School District to pay $20 million to $50 million to his clients and their parents for failing to protect Mead football players and report hazing incidents at a summer football camp.

"The Mead School District is fully responsible for the harms that were caused to these boys," said Marcus Sweetser, who is representing the former Mead student-athletes and their families.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese already ruled leading up to the civil jury trial that the district was liable by failing to protect students from "foreseeable harm," did not follow mandatory reporting laws after receiving several reports of sexual harassment and assault, and engaged in gender-based and racial discrimination.

Now, it's up to the jury to determine appropriate damages.

In opening arguments Wednesday morning, Sweetser said his clients, who were sophomores, attended a Mead High School football camp in June 2023 at Eastern Washington University.

There, they were assaulted by their teammates with battery-powered massage guns. Videos taken by teammates of the assaults circulated in the Mead community, humiliating Sweetser's clients, who were also subjected to taunts by teammates in the following months, the attorney said.

Francis Floyd, one of Mead's attorneys from a Seattle-based firm, acknowledged Mead's liability, but noted inconsistent medical records, inconsistent statements from victims and that the victims' mental health following the hazing was affected by additional stressors other than the assaults. He also said it's difficult to decipher exactly what happened from the videos, which mentioned no racial slurs.

"Evidence will show no permanent injury as a result of the incident," Floyd said.

Sweetser said Wednesday that coaches failed to supervise and monitor their players at the camp, where a group of white players targeted a group of Black players.

One of his clients, who is Black, was targeted on the second day of camp, Sweetser said. His teammates barged into a dorm room, where the student-athletes were housed during the camp, and a 6-foot-6, 285-pound offensive lineman pinned him to the ground as other players pulled his arms away. The lineman then stuck a massage gun into the player's private area. Other players recorded on their phones as the victim screamed.

Sweetser said no Mead coaches were present, or if they were, they did not stop the hazing.

Sweetser's other client, a white player, was assaulted the next day after he tried to protect his Black teammates, who were next to be targeted, by telling his white teammates not to haze them because it was "evil," Sweetser said. The white players attacked that teammate instead by tackling him, pulling his legs apart and assaulting him with a massage gun.

Sweetser said his client can be heard wailing in the videos.

"Where were the coaches?" Sweetser asked.

The videos, which were shown to the jury, circulated among the Mead community in the following weeks and months.

Sweetser said his clients endured taunts and racial slurs by their teammates in the months that followed the summer camp, making them feel isolated and humiliated, Sweetser said.

During that time, parents informed Mead football coach Keith Stamps, who was fired for mishandling the player misconduct, and athletic director John Barrington, who has since retired, of the hazing incidents and the associated videos. In August 2023, a parent reported the assaults to Stamps, who read the email and deleted it, Sweetser said.

Barrington and Stamps met with Mead High principal Kimberly Jensen in December 2023 after another parent raised concerns to Stamps about hazing and racism. The parent told Stamps that in her line of work, "kids jump off bridges" from incidents like this, Sweetser said.

Still, the district did not open an investigation and did not inform the victims' parents as Sweetser said his clients continued to be harassed and humiliated at school.

Sweetser said one of his clients was attacked again Jan. 13, 2024, in a team van that was returning from a wrestling tournament. His teammates, some of whom attacked him at football camp, covered his face, punched him and dumped water on him. The wrestling coaches blamed the victim, according to Sweetser.

Sweetser said his client had his first panic attack after the incident.

On Jan. 19, 2024, another set of parents came forward, emailing Jensen and Barrington about football player hazing at the camp. Jensen and Barrington met with the parents a few days later.

Jensen jumpstarted the internal investigation the following month, or eight months after the camp assaults, when she contacted one of the parents who reported the hazing. Jensen then called the parents of the two victims Sweetser is representing.

Josh Westermann, Mead's Title IX and harassment, intimidation and bullying compliance officer, completed his investigative report March 19 and found a "concerning and persistent pattern of racist comments and discriminatory harassment" in Mead High School's athletic programs, Sweetser wrote in court documents.

"The District's Superintendent, Travis Hanson, deliberately deleted all references to race and racial targeting from Westermann's final report without Westermann's knowledge, authorization, or consent," Sweetser wrote. "The Mead School District then distributed the altered version of Westermann's report to the news media, the school board, parents, and the community."

Sweetser said Wednesday Hanson's new report made the hazing incidents sound random, not racially motivated.

The players who committed the assaults faced no discipline during the 2023 season, competing in every football game. Meanwhile, Sweetser said his clients suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

He said the boys were vibrant, outgoing teenagers before the assaults. One of the clients was already carrying the weight of his mother enduring brain surgery. The other was called "sunshine kid" for his playfulness and endless energy.

Sweetser said by burying evidence and not reporting the incidents, the district sent a message that preservation of the football program mattered more than the safety and rights of its students.

"Adults that conceal abuse endanger children," Sweetser said.

After the two victims and their families realized the district would not protect them, the two players withdrew from the district while their "abusers kept their jerseys," Sweetser said.

Meanwhile, Floyd said a psychologist Sweetser hired diagnosed Sweetser's clients with PTSD, depression and anxiety, but other medical providers the clients were seeing did not diagnose them with those conditions. Floyd said the victims were also having family and relationship issues at the time that could have affected their mental state.

He said one of the victims said in an interview that the hazing was "no big deal" and that he was "good." He stayed on the team and didn't report it until "it came out."

Floyd said the victim was also friends with the large offensive lineman who committed at least one of the attacks. Floyd said the lineman apologized to the victim, who accepted the apology.

Barrington testified Wednesday that he received an email from a concerned parent a couple weeks after the football camp. The email outlined the massage gun assaults, and the parent attached two videos of the incidents.

In the videos, he said he saw players pinning a boy down but did not distinctly see a massage gun applied on the player's privates. He said he couldn't tell who the victim was at the time.

However, in a deposition interview before the trial, Barrington said he could see a massage gun being used on one of the boy's groins when he watched the video emailed to him in 2023.

He said Wednesday that he initially believed the players were "misbehaving" and what they were doing was "unusual" and "probably inappropriate."

"But it didn't look like anything other than that at the time," Barrington said.

He forwarded the initial parent email he received to Stamps, but did not notify anyone else.

Barrington said no one contacted the victims' parents after his meeting with Stamps and Jensen in December 2023, but Barrington said he assumed someone would.

He said he also didn't notify the victims' parents after the January 2024 meeting with Jensen and the concerned parents because he did not think it was his responsibility.

"I think our district was involved at some level," Barrington said.

Two Mead assistant football coaches at the time testified Wednesday that they had few details of the hazing incidents in the months following the assaults. Gunnar Drew and Jared Thomas both said they were responsible for supervising the players at camp, but Drew said they're unable to keep eyes on all the players at all times.

Thomas said he spoke to one of the victims in the summer of 2023 and spring of 2024.

In 2023, Thomas said he asked the player if he was OK because he heard some teammates were messing with him. He said he was angry about it at first but was OK. Thomas said the player didn't want him to intervene and that he had a good time at camp.

The following spring, Thomas found the same player crying on campus, so he went to console him. Thomas said the player told him he didn't want to get his friends in trouble and didn't want to leave them. At that time, his teammates had gotten in trouble with law enforcement, Thomas said.

Misdemeanor fourth-degree assault charges were submitted to the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office for five students involved in the 2023 assaults, but prosecutors did not charge them with assault. Instead, per state law, they were referred to a diversion program because they had no criminal history and the charge was a gross misdemeanor. That kind of agreement is outside the criminal justice system and may involve community service, counseling and other similar options.

The trial resumes Thursday and is expected to last through the end of the month.

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