PELL CITY, Ala. (AP) — Parents are suing an eastern Alabama school district after they say their son suffered a concussion when older baseball teammates annoyed him by beating him with pillows.
Local media reports the lawsuit was filed Wednesday against the Pell City School District, Pell City Police Department, Superintendent James Martin, the high school principal, the baseball coach and others.
Parents say their son attended a ‘midnight madness’ event with baseball players in January. They say their son and others were beaten with pillows concealing unknown objects, injuring several boys.
The lawsuit says the head coach, without calling the parents to tell them about the injuries or asking permission, gave the boy medicine and told him to go to sleep until morning.
The mother says she later received a video of baseball players hitting someone with pillows. A doctor who treated the son diagnosed him with a concussion, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says Pell City High School principal Holly Costello met with the mother on January 20 and told the mother she had interviewed eight players and assured the mother that the incident had ” been settled internally.
Martin told the St. Clair Times that he and school board members are considering whether the district will continue to sponsor sports team sleepovers.
The family says police and school officials have dismissed their complaints. Attorney JD Gilbert told WBRC-TV the family believes no one has been held responsible.
“The head coach of the baseball team is always the head coach,” Gilbert said. “The players who beat the younger ones – there was no punishment. »
Pell City Police Chief Clay Morris told WBRC-TV in a statement that the family’s claims were “false” and that officers “determined that no criminal conduct took place.”
The Associated Press
