In a lawsuit filed last week, officials at a Kentucky high school are accused of failing to punish a football player for an attack on another student that left the victim unconscious.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, the suit names Central High School football coach Marvin Dantzler, athletic director Ryan Bringhusrt and principal Raymond Green as defendants, and alleges that the trio allowed a football player to participate in a game despite his having knocked out a younger player shortly before kickoff. The suit claims negligent supervision and retaliation, and was filed on behalf of the alleged victim and his mother. Neither player was named in the Courier Journal’s report due to their ages.
The alleged incident took place in the locker room prior to a a November 2017 playoff game. The older player, then a junior, allegedly punched the younger player, then a sophomore, in the stomach and delivered a “violent blow” to the back of his head, knocking him out. The freshman student suffered a concussion, and was taken to a hospital.
Students who witnessed the event told an assistant coach what happened, and the older student reportedly admitted what he had done to Dantzler and others. Still, the alleged aggressor was allowed to suit up and play in that night’s game, and others throughout the playoffs. A school employee reportedly contacted the victim’s mother and claimed the attacker couldn’t be identified due to privacy laws. The lawsuit states that the same employee told the victim’s mother that the player who knocked her son out was “needed to win,” and therefore allowed to continue play.
In the months following the incident, the alleged victim was forced to miss a number of school days due to his injuries. The player’s mother alleges that Green and other school officials tried to use those absences as a reason to expel her child from school.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
