Mead School District to pay $17 million to victims in football hazing suit, jury rules

Mead School District will pay $17 million to the families and victims of a 2023 hazing assault at a school football camp, a jury ruled Thursday.

Two former Mead High School students and their families sued the school district after the district took eight months to report the assaults that occurred in June 2023 at a football camp at Eastern Washington University.

The jury awarded one of the victims, who is Black, $8 million. The jury awarded another victim, who is white, $7 million. The jury awarded each of the victims' four parents $500,000.

The victim who is Black said he was called racial slurs before, after and during the attack. The victims' attorney, Marcus Sweetser, said that victim was targeted for his race while the other victim is white and was a target for standing up for his Black teammates.

One of the parents could be seen smiling after the verdict and one of the families embraced each other in a group hug.

"We accept the verdict of the jury," Sweetser said.

Sweetser did not provide further comment and said the victims did not wish to comment at all.

Mead School District said in a statement that it respected the process that led to this outcome.

"We are deeply mindful that two former students and their families have been harmed, and that acknowledgement will always come before anything else we might say," the statement said. "This matter has had a significant impact on those involved, their families and our school community. We remain committed to the ongoing process of improving as a result of what we've learned from these events. Our primary focus is to ensure that every student in our district is safe, supported and protected."

The district said it would not offer further comment until it had time to carefully consider the most appropriate next steps.

In closing arguments Thursday morning, Sweetser, who got choked up at times talking about his clients, said the civil case is simple: The school district must be held accountable for its "recklessness" with these parents' children.

"Without accountability, there is no justice," Sweetser said. "I'm asking for justice."

Sweetser asked the jury, which deliberated for about three hours, to award the six plaintiffs $46.8 million for their "tremendous suffering."

The students' personalities changed after the assault as well as their relationships with their parents, family and the world, he said.

"They'll say it's so much money," said Sweetser, referring to the district. "And it is, because it's so much suffering done from so much wrong here."

Sweetser's $46.8 million request was broken up into $14.5 million for each of the two player's mental suffering; $2.5 million for each player's humiliation; $1.5 million for each player's player's physical pain; and $1 million for each player's loss of life enjoyment. That adds up to $19.5 million for each victim, or $39 million total.

Sweetser asked for $1.95 million for each of the four parents, or $7.8 million total.

He said no one can give back the players, who were sophomores at the time of the hazing, the three years of high school they suffered through with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Their suffering continues after this trial," he said.

He said the parents were "robbed" of the final years with their children before they entered adulthood.

Sweetser called Mead "self-entitled" and that the district wanted to pay a "discount" to the victims.

"This was not a simple mistake," he said of Mead's mishandling of the hazing reports. "This was deliberate."

Francis Floyd, one of Mead's attorneys, didn't ask the jury to impose a certain financial amount on the district.

He acknowledged that the behavior of certain district employees was "wrong" and "totally unacceptable."

He did tell the jurors to not let any sympathy or bias overcome their rational thought process and they must reach a decision on facts and law.

He said Sweetser was trying to get the jury "angry with liability testimony" and "sympathy with tears."

"That cannot be part of your verdict," Floyd said. "You need need to base it upon the facts."

He also accused Sweetser of attempting to convince the jury to "punish" the district for its behavior.

"You cannot consider punitive damages," Floyd said. "We're just talking about what is reasonable and necessary to compensate these two young men for any injures that were proximately caused by the incident."

Sweetser countered by saying he was simply trying to hold the district accountable and asked the jury not to punish the district with its verdict.

Floyd said the emotional distress the two players were going through after the assaults could have been linked to other stressors they were dealing with at the time. Both had issues with parents and were going through the rough patches of adolescence, he said.

Floyd said one of the victims reported the assault lasting 15 seconds.

"So that's worth $1.5 million dollars?" Floyd asked, referring to the physical pain portion of Sweetser's request. "I don't think so, that's not reasonable."

The trial stems from three years ago when teammates of the two victims pinned them down and forcibly applied a battery-powered massage gun to their privates. Students recorded videos of the assaults and they spread throughout the school and community.

The two victims and their parents sued the district for damages for emotional pain and suffering, having endured humiliation and harassment following the assault, Sweetser said.

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.

Mead Superintendent Travis Hanson admitted at trial to deleting references to racial discrimination from a district fact-finding report on the camp hazing incidents. Hanson admitted sending the altered report to the victims' families, Mead School Board and news media without saying that references to racial targeting and discrimination in the report were deleted.

Five assailants involved in the assault were charged with a gross misdemeanor. Since they had no criminal history, they reached a "diversion agreement" outside the criminal justice system, which may require defendants to perform community service, counseling and other similar options.

Amanda Daylong, one of the Mead attorneys, declined to comment after the trial.

Mead School Board member Alan Nolan also declined to comment and no other board members could be reached for comment Thursday.

Elena Perry's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.

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