PITTSBURGH - The Beaver Area School District has received good news in a lawsuit over the hazing of an eighth-grade football player who was called names and concussed with a tennis racket.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly, in Pittsburgh, on Nov. 14 recommended granting the motions to dismiss six of the claims against BASD and football coach Jeffery Beltz. They were sued by Shyler Drumm last year, and it is now up to District Judge Cathy Bissoon to decide if she will adopt or reject Kelly's report and recommendations.
Drumm's mother had informed Beltz of the bullying, and he told the team to stop - which only made things worse. Drumm says Beltz's actions, while dismissing hazing as "kids being kids," created a state-created danger by acting with deliberate indifference.
To do so, Drumm needed to prove his injuries were foreseeable to Beltz and that the coach's inaction to investigate "shocks the conscience."
"The Third Circuit has instructed that there must be a 'drastic change' to the status quo for a state action to meet the threshold of an 'affirmative act' - not merely the 'maintenance of situation that was already dangerous,'" Kelly wrote.
"To qualify as an affirmative act, Beltz's act of informing Drumm's bullies that Drumm's mother called would have had to 'created or increase the risk of harm itself.' While the Court agrees with Drumm that such a statement would not have helped his situation, it did not precipitate a 'drastic change' in the status quo.
"Drumm's bullying may have increased, but such escalation is not a 'drastic change.'"
Drumm's eighth-grade year came in 2017-18. The school was aware of diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
He joined the football team but was met with harassment. He was called "mama cry baby" and had rubber bands shot at him.
When his parents informed Beltz, he allegedly said it was "kids being kids" and did not investigate. He did, however, tell the students to stop bullying Drumm because his mother had complained.
It was alleged that as a result of the bullying, Drumm suffered a broken toe during practice and was hit on the head with a racket in gym class.
Months later, a student put him in a headlock until Drumm passed out. The student dropped him on the ground and Drumm suffered another concussion that led to post-traumatic stress disorder, it is alleged.
That was Drumm's last year in that school district. His family moved and he sued in 2023 in the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas, bringing various claims like violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act that led to the case being removed to federal court.
Should Kelly's report be adopted, the only claim left in Drumm's lawsuit would be negligence against the student that put him in a headlock and dropped him.