The family of an Illinois teenager has filed a lawsuit against a school district, accusing officials of turning a blind eye to the studen...
The family of an Illinois teenager has filed a lawsuit against a school district, accusing officials of turning a blind eye to the student's reports of alleged sexual, physical and emotional abuse, beginning in 2017.
Anthony Brookman, who was 14 at the time, said that he was hazed, including incidents of sexual assault, during football camp before his freshman year at Reed-Custer Community Unit School District 255 in Braidwood, Illinois.
The lawsuit filed on Wednesday alleges football coach Mark Wolf told players during pre-game pep-talks to 'unleash their inner rapist' and 'rip off' the genitalia of the opposing team, leading to the creation of a culture of hazing.
The school's football team 'promoted, encouraged and fostered a culture of hazing, abuse, assault and sexual assault,' and then failed to protect Brookman from student retaliation after he reported it, the lawsuit says.
Three players from the team were arrested by Braidwood police and charged as juveniles with felony aggravated battery in the public way related to the allegations brought by Brookman, CBS reported.
The district denies that it knew of the alleged assaults and either sanctioned or ignored them. Wolf declined to comment.
Brookman described pervasive targeting and attacks that he endured while an upcoming freshman at CUSD 255 during the summer of 2017, asserting the school encouraged a culture that made the assaults possible.
He said he had always wanted to play football, having been involved in youth sports since the age of seven.
'Like one of those good high school movies, you know, I wanted to kind of be like that,' Brookman said.
But following his alleged attacks, the student-athlete said he grew depressed and suicidal.
'I’m not suicidal anymore, but I am still depressed, hurt, mad,' Brookman said.
The following statement was released by Reed-Custer’s Superintendent Mark Mitchell:
'We unequivocally deny the plaintiffs’ allegations that School District officials "were aware of, or tacitly acknowledged, a culture of abuse, hazing, bullying and assault" toward the individual; that hazing has been "part of the culture of the Reed-Custer Football Team for years;" and that "coaches have either sanctioned these rituals or turned a blind eye toward them."
'We intend to vigorously defend these baseless allegations and protect the reputation of our fine School District and its staff.'
But Brookman said he was a continual target of sexual assaults that officials were aware of and did nothing to stop.
The 135-pound teenager described three separate attacks over a period of two months, with the first encounter happening on the high school running track.
He said the code name for hazing at the school was the word, 'Smoke.'
'Every time you heard smoke, somebody was getting bent over,' Brookman said, before describing the first incident.
'[Another student was] like, "you want some smoke?"' Brookman said.
'I’m just saying, "No,"' Brookman continued, saying the other student ignored his objections and kept repeating, 'Come on you want some smoke, you want some smoke.'
'He would take his hand, grab the back of my neck,' Brookman said, without going into more detail about that attack.
The third and final time was the worst, he said.
'It felt like the third time, they just said, "Screw it let’s just give him all we’ve got,"' Brookman said.
'The first guy who slapped me twice and knocked me down, he kicked me in my right side on to my ribs. While the fourth one took my shorts off and they pulled my legs up so that he could get his finger to my, you know, body part.'
Brookman said although Wolf didn't see this attack, other coaches saw at least two of them, and Wolf was aware of the hazing, which allegedly turned to emotional abuse after the teen came forward.
'They would just tell me to kill myself. I’m a little b***, my family’s psychotic. I’m going to go nowhere in life. I’m worthless,' Brookman said.
Even though the teen has since changed schools, hateful social media comments have been directed at Brookman over the past couple of weeks, leading up to the filing of the lawsuit.
Comments posted publicly included, 'He talked shit and got his a** kicked,' and 'Ya’ll want some smoke??'
Another user brought Brookman's family into it, writing, '(F***) this kid–he’s only doing it for the money his sisters a b**** to lmao. (sic)'
Brookman family attorney Shawn Collins said someone even went to the trouble of creating a fake Snapchat account in order to paint a picture of the teen as a bully, himself.
Messages sent from the fake account included one calling another person 'disgusting' and saying, 'You make everyone want to vomit. Your momma made a mistake bringing you in this world. I can’t tell your face from you’re a**.'
The statement from the Reed-Custer School District said, 'We have no knowledge of anyone creating a fake social media account in the individual’s name.'
The former football players who were arrested and charged with a felony related to the allegations brought by Brookman are currently awaiting trial, with court dates scheduled in January, according to CBS.
The Will County State’s Attorney’s office declined to comment on the case due to the fact that the teens have been charged as juveniles.
No comments