COLUMBIA (SC)
The Post and Courier [Columbia, SC]
August 16, 2024
By Hannah Wade
The mother of a Cardinal Newman student has filed a lawsuit claiming her son was racially harassed and sexually abused at the Catholic school.
The lawsuit claims that the Columbia school was grossly negligent in allowing abuses by students and football coaches to take place under its watch.
Football players at Cardinal Newman sexually assaulted the student — who was identified as John Doe and whose age was not listed — while other students stood by laughing and filming in late September 2023, the Aug. 14 lawsuit states. The assault happened just a few weeks into the unnamed student’s time on the team.
Video of the incident, which the lawsuit said left the student “crying and visibly distressed,” was later shared by students through social media, according to the lawsuit.
The student, who is Black, continued to play football at the school until his mother withdrew him in November of last year, per the suit. While he continued to play, he experienced at least two instances where coaches of the football team called him racial slurs, the lawsuit said. He left the school in mid-November after less than two years as a student there.