Pass High soccer player with rare skin disease attacked by teammates for months, lawsuit says
A Pass Christian High student with a rare skin disease was bullied and physically assaulted for months by at least five classmates on the school’s soccer team, according to a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Gulfport.
The tormenting intensified at a college soccer camp when players poured semen and other hot liquids on his face — and recorded some of the incidents on Snapchat, the lawsuit says.
The parents of the 15-year-old boy and former soccer player seek unspecified damages against five minor students, the Pass Christian Public School District, the middle school’s current principal Jedediah “Jed” Mooney, Jones County Junior College and other unnamed defendants.
The victim’s parents say they “were forced to remove him from school” because their son had become “extremely fearful of attending school and terrified that he might be subjected to further abuse.”
The lawsuit accuses the school district of failing to follow its policies to protect students from bullying, harassment, or assaults despite the boy and his parents reporting the alleged attacks to school officials.
In addition, the lawsuit accuses the school district and Jones College in Ellisville of failing to report the alleged attacks to law enforcement officials when they occurred.
Attorneys Christopher Van Cleave and Monte Tynes represent the minor victim and his parents in the civil litigation. The Sun Herald is not identifying the minor victim or his parents.
“We hope that, in addition to bringing justice for our client, this litigation will lead school systems in our region and state to implement, and more importantly to enforce zero-tolerance anti-bullying policies,” Van Cleave said.
The suspects allegedly attacked the boy on various occasions during the 2020-2021 school year, mostly during soccer practice, in the locker room and before games in Pass Christian, and during a soccer camp at Jones College beginning on June 16, 2021.
In the alleged attacks, the suspects stole money from the boy’s book bag, contaminated his clothes with dirt and bleach, or poured hot liquid that included semen on the boy before stripping him naked and filming it for social media.
The suit also singles out Mooney as someone who allegedly knew of the abuse and “encouraged’ or “turned a blind eye” to it and even allegedly “belittled” the victim himself at times.
Dragging his clothes in the mud
The victim suffers from a rare skin condition called Darier disease. According to the National Institute of Health, the disease causes wart-like blemishes to flare up on the skin once it’s contaminated.
In some cases, the minor defendants allegedly stole money or smeared ICY Hot, a topical ointment used to relieve muscle pain, or bleach on the boy’s clothes and socks, or dragged the victim’s shirt or soccer jersey through the dirt or mud.
Once the victim’s clothes were contaminated, his skin condition flared up, causing further medical issues.
The alleged assaults intensified when the boys attended soccer camp at Jones College in June 2021.
“Although Jones College provided (college) soccer players to sit in the lobby at night to make sure that no student-athletes departed the premises, they did not go upstairs to supervise the boys in or about their dorm rooms,” court papers say.
Assaults recorded on FaceTime, Snapchat
At the soccer camp at Jones College, court papers say, the boys had little to no direct supervision other than some college players who manned the lobby to ensure none of the players left the dorm overnight.
During that stay the boy was repeatedly “bullied, sexually harassed, assaulted, battered, sexually assaulted, humiliated or abused” by the five other minor students named as defendants, according to court documents.
The victim was usually trying to sleep when the minor suspects allegedly assaulted him, stripping off his clothes and pouring various liquids, such as hot Ramen noodles, water, andsemen over the victim’s face.
In another assault, the victim said he woke up to the suspects shoving a Vienna sausage down his throat and stripping him of his clothes.
On another occasion, the court papers say, the suspects allegedly ripped off the victim’s clothes, spread his legs and arms apart, and showed the victim’s naked body to a girl on a Facetime call.
During each attack, the minor suspects allegedly filmed the action and shared it on social media, primarily Snapchat.
On the morning after one of the assaults, according to records, the victim woke up to find a “degrading (Snapchat) video of hot semen” pouring over his face while other students watched and laughed.
The victim, the lawsuit says, managed to recover part of that video.
Using GroupMe to discuss soccer team assault
Once soccer camp ended and the team returned to Pass Christian, court papers say, the minor suspects tried to cover up what had happened during soccer camp in a discussion on the Pass Christian soccer team’s GroupMe account.
The discussion included jokes about the alleged attacks and coordination between the alleged suspects for the “destruction of evidence.”
In one of the messages, one of the minor suspects described the time at soccer camp as one “for the books” and how they “don’t think (the victim) had too much fun.”
The other alleged suspects responded with crying and laughing emojis.
At one point, one of the alleged suspects admonished another for writing about what happened in the GroupMe account by telling him to shut and stop sending texts about it.
Another sent a message to say, “If I were y’all, I would just say “y’all was playing around (or) you wasn’t there.”
In other messages, the suspects talked about how they were just going to say they were in their rooms at the time of the alleged attacks or threatened to beat up anyone who named them as suspects.
In other messages on the account, the records say the suspects talked about how they were going to delete their Snapchat accounts to get rid of the videos.
“As long as no one shows the videos, y’all good,” one of the messages said.
But by then, a Pass Christian school official had managed to get one of the videos.
Some of the suspects sent messages to the victim asking him if he had turned in the video to the school official.
Afterward, the court papers say the victim endured repeated harassment and more bullying.
Bullying is a frequent problem for school students in the United States. In a 2017 report by the National Center for Education Statistics, one in five students surveyed for the report say they were victims of bullying at school.
Was anyone charged with a crime?
The Sun Herald reached out to Jones College officials, the Pass Christian School District and Mooney for any comments.
Mooney did not respond, but Pass Christian School Superintendent Carla J. Evers issued a statement: “In the Pass Christian Public School District, we believe all students excel when they are accepted, valued, and safe. Actions concerning the event were handled in accordance with our code of conduct. As this is an ongoing legal and student matter, we will refrain from further comment.”
Jones College President Jesse Smith said one of the boy’s parents reported the alleged attacks by members of the Pass Christian soccer team on June 22, 2021, while under the supervision of a “designated” school official from Pass Christian.
“The College Police Department reported the alleged actions to the Jones County District Attorney’s office on June 24, 2021, and the Jones County Youth Court on June 28, 2021,” Smith said.
The Sun Herald reached out to the Jones County District Attorney’s Office to find out if anyone had faced criminal prosecution in the case.
Jones County District Attorney Brad Thompson, who was appointed to the position on July 1, previously served as county prosecutor in Jones County. He said he is also is in private practice with a law firm that represents Jones College, and, therefore, had to recuse himself from prosecuting the case.
As a result, he said, Wayne County prosecutor Curtis Bates agreed to serve as special prosecutor in the case.
Bates declined to comment on the case, citing privacy laws in Youth Court.
Bates said he could not confirm or deny whether anyone is being prosecuted for the alleged crimes in Youth Court. According to state law, youth court proceedings are confidential and strictly inaccessible to the public.
None of the minor students identified as suspects, however, have been charged as adults with any criminal offense, according to court records.
It’s unclear whether the students faced expulsion or any other disciplinary measures as a result of the alleged acts. But Mooney, an assistant principal in Pass Christian at the time the alleged crimes occurred, has since been named principal at Pass Christian Middle School.
The victim’s parents are asking for civil damages for the boy’s emotional and physical pain, ongoing medical treatment and more.
A lawsuit represents one side of a story.
This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 11:54 AM.
