School officials in Berea, Ohio, failed to make public a $175,000 settlement over a 2019 hazing scandal involving the Berea-Midpark High School football team in which three players were sexually abused by teammates.
As reported by Adam Ferrise, who covers federal courts for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, school officials released the terms of the settlement only after those entities filed a claim in the Ohio Court of Claims.
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School officials in Berea, Ohio, failed to make public a $175,000 settlement over a 2019 hazing scandal involving the Berea-Midpark High School football team in which three players were sexually abused by teammates.
As reported by Adam Ferrise, who covers federal courts for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, school officials released the terms of the settlement only after those entities filed a claim in the Ohio Court of Claims.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer alleged that the district violated Ohio’s public records laws when it initially refused to release the terms of the agreement, the type of document that has long been a public record for government entities who settle litigation.
School district treasurer Jill Rowe declined comment, Ferrise reported.
The settlement stemmed from a lawsuit that accused the district of failing to supervise football players during a three-day summer camp at Case Western Reserve University in June 2019. Three players were sexually assaulted or abused by teammates in a dorm room that wasn’t supervised by football coaches, the lawsuits alleged.
Cleveland police sex crimes detectives investigated and found 11 players were victims of hazing, four of whom were sexually assaulted, per Ferrise's reporting.
Related: HS Football Players Face Charges in Hazing Incident
Four students later pleaded guilty to criminal charges, including hazing, abduction and obstructing justice. All four were sentenced to probation, according to Ferrise, adding that In 2023, officials from both Berea-Midpark and Case Western Reserve University settled the cases with the families of three victims.
The money was paid out through the insurance company Liberty Mutual. Berea-Midpark and Case Western Reserve denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
According to Ferrise, the agreement included a confidentiality clause that said that if officials were asked about the settlement, they could only respond “the dispute has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties.”
It also stipulated that all involved in the case agreed to keep the terms of the agreement in “strict confidence” and that the plaintiffs in the case “will not state, suggest or imply that this document is a public or educational record maintained by the Board,” Ferrise reported.
After the case settled, school officials denied several requests by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer for the record. School board officials allowed superintendent Tracy Wheeler and Rowe to make unilateral decisions on the case. "They spent about 30 seconds discussing the settlement at a public meeting," Ferrise wrote Tuesday.
Rowe, who also acts as the district’s public records liaison, told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that no written records of the settlement existed.
"An Ohio Court of Claims special master sided with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. The district appealed the decision, arguing that the district’s insurer settled the lawsuit and that it wasn’t a party to the settlement," Ferrise wrote. "Ohio Court of Claims Judge Lisa Sadler rejected the arguments. She ruled that the district was a party to the settlement and that the settlement 'documented the decisions and activities' of the district and are therefore public records."
“The Ohio Supreme Court has held that government entities cannot conceal records by delegating a public duty; and that the preparation of settlement agreements by an attorney for the insurer of a public office, constitutes a public duty,” Sadler wrote, as reported by Ferrise.
