Plainfield School District 202 may consider settlement in football hazing lawsuit

The Plainfield School District 202 Board may consider a settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit case involving allegations of the hazing and sexual assault of two former football players.

District 202 – the fifth-largest school district in Illinois – could approve the settlement at its regular board meeting Aug. 28, according to an Aug. 5 joint status report filed in the 2021 lawsuit against the district.

A spokeswoman for the district declined to comment on the details of the proposed settlement.

Both parties in the case have “finalized the terms of a draft settlement agreement and release subject to formal approval” of the board, according to the report.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 23, 2021, by attorneys for the parents of two former Plainfield Central High School football team members known only as Doe Child A and Doe Child B.

The lawsuit alleged that they were sexually assaulted with broomsticks by other players in a locker room in 2019 at Plainfield Central High School as part of “long-standing and prevalent hazing rituals and traditions” known as “Code Blue.”

Doe Child A and Doe Child B claim that district officials made no effort to prevent them from being subjected to bullying, harassment and threats by their peers after the alleged sexual assaults.

Attorneys for district officials have denied that the district or any of its employees caused any hazing, harassment, bullying, abuse or other unlawful treatment of the two student football players. They also denied that “Code Blue” was known to its coaches or that it is a “long-standing hazing ritual.”

Attorneys for the district said in an April 20, 2023, court filing that only after the incident involving the plaintiffs was reported, the district “received information that a varsity player was using a broom handle to poke [the Doe children’s] buttocks over their clothing.”

The district’s attorneys also said in the same court filing that the district “received information that players had shouted ‘Code Blue’ during the incident,” and this was heard by one of the Doe children.

Following defense motions to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras tossed out the first 10-count lawsuit Jan. 19, 2022. Kocoras then dismissed an amended 12-count lawsuit Feb. 25, 2022.

On March 9, 2023, Kocoras dismissed 12 of the 14 claims in a second amended lawsuit.

The two claims that remain standing have alleged that district officials acted with deliberate indifference to the alleged sexual harassment toward Doe Child A and Doe Child B in violation of federal law following their alleged sexual assault.

In Kocoras’ March 9 ruling, he said a reasonable jury could find that district officials’ failure to separate the alleged assailants from Doe Child A and Doe Child B, their failure to discipline all the players involved in the alleged assault, their failure to conduct an independent investigation, and their failure to support the alleged victims “was clearly unreasonable in light of the circumstances.”

“Plaintiffs certainly face an uphill battle with this count, but for now, they have alleged enough to get them out of the gate,” Kocoras said.

Kocoras said that although attorneys for Doe Child A and Doe Child B allege “Code Blue” was a well-known tradition that the district and coaches allowed to continue unchecked, there are “simply no allegations to back these conclusory claims up.”

In 2019, four Plainfield Central students were charged with battery in connection with the incident after a Plainfield police investigation. The juvenile cases were “expunged in accordance with Illinois juvenile law,” police said.

Plainfield police officials have said that investigators “determined the initial allegation of a ‘hazing incident’ does not meet the statutory definition of hazing ... as it was not part of an induction process, and no bodily harm occurred.”

The investigation also apparently yielded “no evidence of a sex crime,” police said.