Football player’s mom sues school district

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By Dustin Lemmon | Friday, August 29, 2008 1:28 AM CDT | () comments

The mother of a 16-year-old Rock Island High School football player, who suffered a severe injury playing football recently, has filed suit against the school district claiming she never gave written consent for him to play.

Faye Jordan filed the suit in Rock Island County Circuit Court this week through her Rock Island attorney Peter Soble.

The suit claims her son, Keith Wyatt, was playing defensive back July 29 when he tried to stop a running back and incurred an injury to his right arm and shoulder as well as his spine.

Wyatt has lost half the use of his right arm and it is a lifelong injury, the suit claims. Jordan will spend “large sums of money” to take care of him, the suit adds.

The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages, which is the minimum amount a plaintiff can ask for in a lawsuit under Illinois law.

According to the suit, Jordan never gave written consent for her son to play football and participate in violent collisions.

Holly Sparkman, the school district’s marketing director, said the district had no comment on the suit Thursday.

According to the district, under school policy a student participating in extracurricular athletics must have written permission from his or her parent or guardian, which gives the school full waiver of responsibility.

The student is also supposed to provide proof of accident insurance coverage either by a policy approved by the district or through a family insurance plan.

Ron McGraw, assistant executive director for the Illinois High School Association, said schools were allowed 25 days to practice football from the day school let out for the summer until Aug. 3. On those days they could practice for as long as they wanted. From Aug. 3 to Aug. 13 they were not to hold any practices.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.