The Grossmont Union High School District (California) has agreed to pay $7.1 million to settle the claim of a high school football player, Rashaun Council, and his family, who claimed the district was negligent in the treatment of Council’s concussion.
Council, of Monte Vista High School, suffered the injury in a freshman game against Mount Miguel High School on Oct. 17, 2013. After the game, Council began vomiting, and then collapsed. Reportedly, he suffered a concussion and a subdural hematoma, and spent the next several months at Rady Children’s Hospital.
“Because of the delay in diagnosis, the delay in treatments, he is forever going to be in the condition he is,” Brian Gonzalez, the Council family’s attorney told the media. “They continued to play him because they wanted to win this game. That type of reality should never take the place of protecting our kids.”
At the time, Gonzalez told a television station that his client’s coaches were trained to recognize the signs of a concussion, but failed to do so.
This tipped the scales in the plaintiffs’ favor, according to one firm following the case.
“One of the biggest arguments in Council’s case against the school district was that the delay in diagnosing him and getting him treatment was a critical mistake that drastically worsened the outcome of the incident,” according to the Baum, Hedlund, Aristei & Goldman, PC, which authored a blog post about the case. “Council’s attorney argued that the freshmen coaches—none of whom had completed state-required concussion training due to a loophole in the system—prioritized the game win over Council’s well-being.”
Furthermore, the district’s policy was “to have a physician at all varsity football games,” but not necessarily sub-varsity games, according to a spokesman at the time. This became a point of contention with the plaintiffs, who alleged that the freshmen games should have been staffed, too.
Meanwhile, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which oversees high school sports for the state, reportedly told the television station that there is no CIF rule that requires medical staff at regular season games. Rather, each school district decides whether to staff the games.
Attorney Weighs In
Eugene Egdorf, of Shrader & Associates LLP, who has been at the forefront as a plaintiff’s attorney for many concussion cases, told Concussion Litigation Reporter that “the jury verdict should be heard loud and clear by all involved in athletics – whether its pew-wee, high school, NCAA or NFL. These organizations and its members MUST put the athletes first. The health and well-being of these young people should not just be priority number 1, it should be far and away number 1.
“Despite all of the information that has now come to light as to the dangers of concussions and sub-concussive hits, we continue to see examples, often devastating as with Council, where those most responsible for our young people abdicate their responsibilities. And all too often it is based upon excuses such as ‘a loophole in the regulations.’ Why when it comes to help is someone looking at a loophole? Is that how you would want your own children handled?
“It must stop – and it seems with these folks the only for it to stop is for them to get hit in the wallet. Kudos to that brave young man and his attorneys for obtaining a just result that hopefully will benefit others from suffering the same fate.”
