The Highlands (Pa) School District has settled a concussion lawsuit brought by a student athlete for $20,000.
The incident occurred in the fall of 2007 when plaintiff Zack Alt was a football player on the Highlands High School football team. During the course of the football season, Alt allegedly suffered several concussions.
The last occurred during a playoff game. Yet after the concussion, head football coach Sam Albert left Alt in the game in “deliberate indifference” to his condition, which worsened throughout the contest.
“In fear for plaintiff’s health, safety and welfare, at least two of his teammates approached defendant Albert during the course of the game and advised him of plaintiff’s incoherent condition. Alt’s suit alleges that Albert did nothing in response to the players’ pleas, and that the coach’s deliberate indifference amounted to a ‘practice, custom or policy.’”
Furthermore, Alt alleged that after the game athletic trainer Mike Russo’s initial post-game plan was “to require plaintiff Alt to ride the bus back to school with his team,” according to the complaint.
“Even after observing the plaintiff in this vulnerable state, defendant Russo failed to understand the risks associated with plaintiff’s injuries, and suggested to plaintiff’s mother that she should just ‘put him to bed.’”
The plaintiff’s mother, however, chose a different course, transporting the plaintiff to the emergency room of a ital.
The plaintiff alleged that it was later communicated to his mother “by one of plaintiff’s treating physicians that had she followed the advice of defendant Russo and ‘put him to bed,’ plaintiff would have most likely fallen into a comatose state,” as he had suffered “a substantial closed head injury.”
The “deliberate indifference,” as the plaintiff would describe it, continued in the classroom, where the principal offered to change his grades with a “shake of his magic wand,” instead of instituting policies to help Alt obtain an education. He also alleged that teachers altered his grades during his junior and senior years. This allegedly left the plaintiff with “an education that is well below a tenth grade level,” causing “a permanent diminution of his earning power and capacity.”
Alt ultimately sued, citing Constitutional violations, bodily injury, violation of the school’s special relationship to him, violation of his right to an education, and other charges. He named the district, high school Principal Thomas Shirey, Assistant Principal Walt Hanzlik and Russo as defendants.
