A judge threw out a case last week brought by the parents of Jordan Preavy who allege the Milton school district failed to protect their son from sexually explicit hazing they believe led to his death.
Judge Robert Mello ruled that the school district could not be held responsible for the hazing incident or Preavy’s suicide because school officials didn’t know about the hazing and there was not a clear link between the abuse and his death.
Pietro Lynn, of Lynn, Lynn, Blackman and Manitsky, P.C., the attorney for the school district, said no one in Milton is “taking any pleasure in the tragic events that led to this.”
In 2011, Preavy was a junior and a new student at Milton High School. He joined the football team and stayed after practice for a team dinner near the block house, or locker rooms.
During the dinner, at least one teammate held Preavy down in the block house while another sodomized him through his clothing with a broomstick. A year later, and several days after the football coach dismissed him because of a conflict between his football and lacrosse schedules, Preavy committed suicide.
Lynn said what happened to Preavy was an isolated incident and there hadn’t been a pattern of this kind of assault on the team before. “The question for the court was whether there was notice he [Jordan Preavy] would be assaulted,” Lynn said. He argued that there was no way for the school to know that a problem existed.
Preavy’s parents believe his death is linked to the hazing incident and their attorney, Robert Appel, argued the school district should be held responsible for what happened during school-sponsored events on the school property.
Appel said the football program was “wholly unaccounted for” and “off the rails.” By 2011, when Preavy was assaulted, the school knew there were problems with the football program and they should have required close supervision, he added.
In 2009, Milton parents received a letter from Athletic Director Joe Solomon saying the school was looking into verbal harassment that had to do with a game the students called “no homo.” As a result, the team was put on probation in 2010, the season before Preavy joined the team.
A year later when Preavy was assaulted no adults were supervising students after practice, according to Appel.
“The principal never set foot in that building [the block house] even though she was on the campus for 18 years,” Appel said.
The school had a “culture of hazing that lead to disastrous results,” Appel said.
Preavy had been in counseling for drug and alcohol abuse and depression that began before his move to Milton. He reportedly never spoke about the hazing incident to his counselors. His family learned about the abuse two years after the incident occurred and 10 months after his death. Preavy did not leave a suicide note.
In his decision, Mello said he didn’t believe the school district could have know that the verbal harassment exhibited in the “no homo” games would escalate to a physical assault. He cited case law showing schools can’t be held responsible for what students do to each other.
“The specific facts of the case do not support the conclusion the alleged assault was foreseeable such that increased supervision of either the victim or the alleged perpetrators was required. For this reason, the plaintiff cannot succeed on the negligence claim,” he wrote.
Appel is considering an appeal. “I think this case should go to a jury,” he said.
CORRECTION: The name of the deceased was originally misspelled.
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