Dietrich Locker Room Rape followed Months of Racial Abuse, Says Civil Lawsuit Seeking $10M

DIETRICH — The rape of a black, mentally disabled Dietrich High School football player inside a school locker room in October was the culmination of months of racial, physical, emotional and psychological abuse ignored by school officials, alleges a civil lawsuit filed against the district.

The suit claims football coaches and school administrators “were aware of or should have been aware of numerous incidents in which the plaintiff was subject to severe and pervasive harassment, racial discrimination, mental and physical assault and battery culminating in a vicious anal rape of the plaintiff by several white male students.” The claim was filed in United States District Court earlier this month by attorney Keith Roark on behalf of the teenager. It seeks $10 million.

It names Dietrich School Principal Stephanie Shaw, Superintendent Ben Hardcastle, district board members Starr Olson, Brad Dotson, Benjamin Hoskisson, Kris Hubert and Perry Van Tassell, and football coaches Mike Torgensen, Bret Peterson, Rick Astle and Wayne Dill.

It also lists 10 individuals “whose true and correct identities are not yet known to the plaintiff,” but whose names will be added to the suit later.

Criminal charges were filed in March against three teenagers over an incident in October in which investigators say the attackers jammed a coat hanger into the boy’s rectum. The civil lawsuit says the abuse went on for months and included other attacks.

The lawsuit says the victim of the rape endured “racial bullying, racial name-calling, racial taunting, racial harassment and humiliation and at least one physical beating at an event sponsored by the high school and supervised by employees of the district.”

This abuse was “clearly apparent, obviously foreseeable and entirely preventable, but the (school administrators and coaches) ignored and/or neglected their clear duty with deliberate indifference,” the suit said.

School administrators “were intentionally and negligently indifferent” to the abuse, knew the victim was “essentially helpless and incapable of defending himself” because of his mental disability and race but failed to take responsible action, the lawsuit said.

“The district’s athletic coaches, both employees and volunteers, were aware or should have been aware that the plaintiff was made the brunt of racial epithets, harassment, humiliation as well as physical attacks on the athletic field, on team bus trips and in the locker room and yet took no reasonable action to protect the plaintiff from such conduct by his fellow student and prevent its continuation,” the lawsuit said.

The district has declined to comment to reporters.

Among the students and football players who abused the victim, John R.K. Howard is named as being particularly malicious. The 18-year-old from Keller, Texas, who’s charged in the rape case with a felony count of forcible penetration by use of a foreign object, is accused of bringing with him from Texas “a culture of racial hatred towards the plaintiff.”

Howard made the victim learn a “vicious Ku Klux Klan song” and recited the song to him “at the same time a confederate flag was posted on Mr. Howard’s computer,” court documents said. Howard’s actions were ignored by school officials and football coaches “in part due to his athletic ability and community connections.”

Howard also knocked the victim unconscious during a preseason football camp while surrounded by coaches and teammates, the lawsuit suit. The beating “was accompanied by catcalls, taunts and racial epithets of the football players/students in full view of coaches who not only failed to prevent the abuse but actively promoted it.”

The suit said the victim was also humped and taunted during football practices, called names like “Kool-Aid, chicken eater, watermelon and (N-word),” and “continuously subjected” to wedgies, in which his underwear was yanked up out of his pants causing “extreme pain, humiliation and suffering and tearing of the underpants.”

The victim testified during a preliminary hearing last month that the same day he was raped with a hanger after football practice, Howard and 17-year-old Tanner Ward gave him a “power wedgie” that was so violent it tore his boxers.

Ward is also charged as an adult in Lincoln County District Court with a felony count of forcible penetration by use of a foreign object.

The civil lawsuit seeks damages “of not less than $10 million,” declaration that school officials violated the plaintiff’s constitutional rights, punitive damages as decided by the court or a jury and “any and all other appropriate relief.”

The story originally appeared on MagicValley.com. It is posted here with permission.