| A Calhoun mother and her son are suing the Calhoun Board of Education and the state school board over an alleged hazing incident that occurred in a football locker room last year.
Calhoun school officials had previously found there was no evidence that four players on the Red Devil football team hazed 16-year-old Mitchell Patterson during a summer practice.
Sherry Patterson of Orma has filed the suit in Kanawha Circuit Court on behalf of her son.
Also being sued are four players involved in the incident and most of their parents, all identified in the suit by the use of initials.
The August, 2008 complaint claims Mitchell was attending a summer football practice at the high school when coaches instructed team members to head into the locker room unsupervised.
Once in the locker room, Mitchell was "viciously and brutally attacked, hazed, threatened, battered, assaulted, choked, restrained against his will, kidnapped and bound by his feet and hands" by the four players, according to the lawsuit.
The suit claims Mitchell suffered emotional and physical damage, embarrassment and humiliation due to the alleged assault.
The school system said "Gathered information does not indicate hazing," but "information does indicate restraint by other students," further calling their investigation a "report of investigation of an harassment allegation."
Sgt. Jeff Skidmore of the Grantsville Detachment of the WV State Police told the Parkersburg News, "We are conducting an investigation of battery against a 16-year-old boy."
Cpl. Doug Starcher, who handled the investigation, told the News, "The info I have obtained so far there has been some horseplay...I don't think anything out of the ordinary."
Sherry Patterson disagreed, saying "There must be a different legal and policy standard in locker rooms, not even calling this hazing."
"If you meet someone in front of the school, bind their hands and feet together with duct tape, throw them to the ground against their will, it is assault and battery. In the Calhoun school system they just call it horseplay," Patterson said.
The State Police, according to Patterson, found no legal grounds to bring charges.
School officials said they took appropriate action in the matter, suspending the players from a scrimmage game.
The Patterson youth withdrew from Calhoun schools and is attending school in another county.
This is not the first time such incidents have happened at Calhoun High School. The school system has recently taken several preventative steps.
The Patterson family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages on grounds of negligence, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and parental liability.
Tim Carrico is representing the plaintiffs and will be heard before Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey Walker.
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