Athens High School football players have sued the school district over their removal from the team
By: Donovan Varney
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Athens, OH (WOUB) – Three Athens High School football players have filed lawsuits against the school district over their suspensions from the team.
Two were suspended for drug use and the third over crimes he admitted to in juvenile court. Juvenile court records are sealed so the crimes are not public information.
The students, all seniors, argue in their lawsuits the suspensions jeopardize their ability to get recruited for college sports, earn scholarships and profit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
One of the students, identified only as I.R. because he is a minor, was back on the team two days after filing his lawsuit. The judge granted I.R.’s request for a court order allowing him to return to regular team activity while the lawsuit works its way through the process. The order was good for two weeks and expires Thursday.
The other two athletes, starting quarterback Braeden Young and Joshua Peterson, requested similar court orders. Young is still waiting for the judge in his case to make a decision, while the judge in Peterson’s case denied the request.
Friday is the last day of the regular football season. As things stand now, the Athens Bulldogs are competing to win their conference and make a run in the playoffs with an undefeated record.
If the Bulldogs make it all the way to the state championship, that would add seven more weeks of football to their schedule.
The Athens City School District, meanwhile, argues none of these cases should be in court in the first place. The district says its decisions regarding player suspensions cannot be appealed and therefore the judges have no authority to review them.
The judges are each expected to make a decision on the district’s argument, which could happen any day now.
Experts say they expect to see more cases like these, where high school athletes argue decisions made by school administrators jeopardize their potential NIL earnings as college players. Under Ohio law, college athletes are able to make money off of their name, image and likeness through endorsement deals.
Because cases like this are so new, it’s uncertain how receptive judges and juries will be to these arguments.
Young was the first player to file a lawsuit after the school suspended him for his alleged second drug-related offense in September.
Young was placed on probation because of words exchanged between him and the magistrate during his court appearance for the speeding ticket. The magistrate didn’t like Young’s attitude and had him taken into custody and held in contempt of court.
Soon after that mid-August hearing, Young told his probation officer he could not pass a drug test. The probation officer later reported this to the school.
In late September, Young failed a drug test. He was removed from the football team for the rest of the season for his second drug-related offense.
Young’s attorney, Bob Toy, argues the school district never made his client aware that his decision to self-report drug use to his probation officer counted as his first drug-related offense.
The school’s policy is clear in the Athletic Handbook, which says that self-reporting drug use counts as an offense. Toy argues the school should have communicated this to Young and made it clear to him another offense would result in the end of his season.
Athletic Director Eric Sholtis said in an email to Young’s mother the reason Young didn’t know about his first offense is because he “did not get the chance to give [him] the information in writing today.”
The handbook also prohibits student athletes from appealing their suspensions. Toy argues “there is no rational basis to treat student athletes participating in extracurricular activities with less due process rights than ordinary students, including but not limited to no notice requirements nor appeal process.”
Court documents filed by the school district include statements from Athens High School Principal April Stewart and Sholtis.
According to these statements, Young was issued a final warning by the principal in a meeting in August shortly after his court appearance. Stewart was concerned by Young’s behavior in court and told him any further violation of school rules or his probation would result in him being removed from the team.
According to the statements, Young’s failed drug test in late September was the last straw. By then, the school had been made aware of Young self-reporting drug use to his probation officer. So the failed drug test was considered his second offense.
The district notes in the Athletic Handbook that in the case of suspension from the team, the school serves as the “sole judge as to whether the pupil may play.”
The sequence of events leading up to I.R.’s suspension from the football team are similar to Young’s.
In late 2022, the Athens High School principal saw I.R. leaving a school bathroom and suspected he might be high, according to I.R.’s lawsuit. I.R. was offered a drug screen, which he declined, saying he would not pass it. He was suspended from school for three days.
I.R. voluntarily went to Hopewell Health Centers for a substance abuse assessment, according to the lawsuit.
In September, I.R. was allegedly caught with a vape pen containing small amounts of THC, according to the lawsuit. This was treated as his second drug offense and he was suspended from the team for the rest of the season.
Toy also represents I.R. and argues school officials did not inform him after the incident two years ago that this was considered his first offense and a second offense would result in his dismissal from the team.
David Ridpath, a professor of sports business at Ohio University and an expert in student athlete issues, said cases like these may become more common, and schools need to be careful with their procedure when it comes to removing athletes from competition.
“If you’re going to suspend a player for a year, you better make sure you’ve done everything correctly, or else there definitely will be some legal action,” Ridpath said.
Tyler Walchanowicz, a lawyer with expertise in NIL, said strategies like Toy’s are a common way to get kids back on their teams.
“They ask for a preliminary injunction to preserve the status quo and then hope that the case stretches out long enough it just becomes moot,” Walchanowicz said. “And by the time a court really settles this fully, the season’s done and the kids have played.”
He said this is popular with transfer students in Ohio because of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s eligibility rules. The OHSAA rules only allow transfer students to play in the second half of the athletic season, but sometimes preliminary injunctions will allow athletes to play during the first half of the season too.
Even if the Athens judges decide they have the authority to hear the students’ cases, it’s unlikely the three students will have a decision on the merits of their cases in time to play the final games of the season.
WOUB reached out to Athens football Head Coach Nathan White and Superintendent Tom Gibbs for comments on the litigation. White did not respond and Gibbs said he couldn’t comment.