Judge finds Mead School District liable in football hazing lawsuit

A judge on Monday found Mead School District liable in a hazing lawsuit where one of its high school football players was pinned down by his teammates and assaulted with a massage gun while other players yelled, cheered and recorded the incident with their cellphones.

The lawsuit is one of three filed in the last two years against the district alleging coaches and district officials failed to protect players and report the assaults, harassment and racial discrimination they believe was leveled against the student-athletes. Four of the five athletes who filed suits are Black.

One of the students and his parents filed a lawsuit two weeks ago in federal court seeking $50 million in damages in a case that also names Eastern Washington University, where the hazing occurred.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese ruled Monday that Mead School District failed to protect students from “foreseeable harm,” did not follow mandatory reporting laws after receiving numerous reports of sexual harassment and assault and engaged in gender-based discrimination in a case where a Mead sophomore football player was assaulted with a massage gun after protecting two Black students from the abuse, according to court records.

“Schools are entrusted with the safety of children,” said Marcus Sweetser, who represents the family in Plese’s ruling as well as a second family in another lawsuit surrounding the football hazing allegations against the school district. “That trust carries legal duties – duties to protect, duties to act, and duties to report. The court has now made clear those duties were violated as a matter of law.”

Mead School District wrote in a statement that it is “committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all students and staff.”

“Discriminatory harassment, in any form, has no place in our schools and is never tolerated,” the statement reads. “The Mead School District also does not tolerate staff who fail to act in accordance with their training and professional responsibilities regarding any type of discriminatory harassment. The District understands that it is legally responsible for the actions of its employees, even when they fail to follow their training, District policies, and their statutory obligations.”

The lawsuit, filed in July 2024, describes two Mead football summer camps, one in 2022 and another in 2023, at Eastern Washington University where the massage gun assaults occurred.

One of the victims, who filed the federal lawsuit, was assaulted in 2022. He was carried out of his room and into another room as more than 20 teammates shouted and hollered, according to the lawsuit. The complaint says he was pinned down, his clothing stripped off and his teammates then applied a pulsating massage gun to his anus. His teammates recorded the assault on their phones.

At the 2023 camp, a group of white upperclassmen targeted three younger Black players, the lawsuit says. One of them was pinned down inside a dormitory and a masked teammate applied the massage gun to his private areas as others recorded the attack on their phones and the targeted player screamed.

The next night, the sophomore who Plese ruled in favor of Monday, warned the other two Black players and another student-athlete hid the two players in his own room. The sophomore told his teammates the assaults needed to stop and would not disclose the location of the two players who were apparently the next targets of the hazing.

The sophomore was then tackled to the ground as some of his teammates pinned his arms and legs down, pulled his legs apart and held them toward his head as about 15 players yelled, cheered and filmed. A masked player with the massage gun proclaimed the “price must be paid” as “punishment” for not revealing the two other players’ location and repeated the assaultive ritual on the sophomore, the lawsuit states.

The cellphone videos of the incident circulated in the Mead community and beyond.

It wasn’t until February 2024, or eight months after the assault, that Mead notified the sophomore’s parents about the circulating videos.

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. A diversion agreement is outside the criminal justice system and may require the defendants to perform community service, counseling and other similar options.

“This case is about accountability,” Sweetser, of Sweetser Law Office in Spokane, said in the statement. “At the center of it are children who were entitled to protection, honesty, and adult intervention. Accountability is how institutions change. It is how we protect the next child – not just explain what happened to the last.”

A jury trial is scheduled in May to determine the damages to compensate the former Mead sophomore football player. Sweetser’s lawsuit asked for judgment in an amount that would fairly compensate his client for damages, attorney fees and other relief.

The school district said in a statement that it was aware of Plese’s ruling.

“The Order on Partial Summary Judgment resolves specific issues before trial, while leaving open the possibility that other issues may still be litigated,” the school district wrote. “As these matters remain undecided and subject to ongoing litigation, the District will rely upon counsel to address the facts and matters regarding damages.”

Meanwhile, two of the four Black students settled their cases with the school district.

Colin Prince, attorney with Connelly Law Offices representing the two students and their families, declined to release the details of the settlements because one of his clients is a minor and his settlement still requires court approval.