Eight months after the pool-cue rape of an Ooltewah High School freshman, the victim’s attorneys sued the Hamilton County Board of Education and former Ooltewah High School employees.
The 23-page federal lawsuit filed today states that district administrators and school employees knew a culture of abuse had been taking place for years, “and their failure to remediate this rampant abuse resulted in escalation of male student athlete’s harassment, hazing and assaults of teammates.”
The lawsuit claims that the Hamilton County Board of Education, former Ooltewah High School Principal Jim Jarvis, the school’s former Athletic Director Allard “Jesse” Nayadley and former boy’s head basketball coach Andre “Tank” Montgomery, were “reckless, grossly negligent and deliberately indifferent to the health, safety and welfare of the [victim].”
The lawsuit asks for a jury to hear the case and decide the amount of damages the victim should receive. Punitive damages are also being sought against Jarvis, Nayadley and Montgomery.
The punitive damages should be an amount “sufficient to deter Defendants from violating others’ rights in the future and compel them to put a stop to this abuse once and for all,” attorneys state.