‘Bullied unmercifully’: Football player with epilepsy locked in locker, mom says

A Woodford County High School junior varsity football player locked a team member with epilepsy in a football locker for 30 minutes to bully him, said the mother of the bullied boy.

The mother, Nancy Loman, said coaches had to a cut a lock off the locker to get her son out because no one had the combination. Loman said she had filed a second-degree unlawful imprisonment charge against the football player with a court-designated worker in juvenile court. She said her son had been cramped in the locker and could not stand up.

Woodford County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Hawkins told the Herald-Leader he couldn’t say a lot about the issue because it’s a student disciplinary matter.

But Hawkins confirmed that one student locked another in a football locker in September.

“The incident was fully investigated by our high school administration. We took extremely strong disciplinary action. We followed up with her son to ensure that he’s doing OK,” Hawkins said.

Loman ultimately notified the Woodford County Human Rights Commission, whose members met with Hawkins. Loman said the junior varsity football player who locked up her son, Logan Sanders, a ninth-grader, had bullied him in middle school.

She said she heard that students videotaped the incident involving her son and posted those images on social media. She said she had not seen the images, which have since been removed.

Loman told the Woodford Sun, the newspaper that first reported the incident, that it happened around 3:45 p.m. on Sept. 26 as the junior varsity football team was getting ready to play a game. Loman told the Herald-Leader that Woodford County football coach Dennis Johnson called her to tell her about the incident and she in turn talked to the high school principal. She said her son went ahead and played football the night the incident happened but does not feel comfortable playing with the student who put him in the locker.

Loman said she was told by school officials that the student who put her son in the locker was suspended for four days and placed in an alternative school program for 30 days. Hawkins did not discuss that student’s current status with the Herald-Leader. Loman said she’s concerned that the offending player will be allowed to return to school and to the team.

Marilyn Daniel, an attorney who is vice chair of the Woodford County Human Rights Commission, told the Herald-Leader that after Loman contacted the commission by e-mail, the commissioners invited Loman to their early October meeting.

“She came and told us her story,” Daniel said.

The situation involving the student, who school officials classify as disabled because of his epilepsy and learning disabilities, might not have been under the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Commission, Daniel told the Herald-Leader. But Daniel said commission members told Loman they would go talk to Hawkins. The superintendent had asked the commission in the past to let him know if they heard of any issues that should be brought to his attention, Daniel said.

“He seemed to think that the school system had dealt with it appropriately,” Daniel said. “He was thinking of things he might do” to help Loman’s son.

“This goes above and beyond the bullying,” Loman said Tuesday. “This goes into a form of hazing. I just don’t want this to ever happen to another student at all. My son’s been bullied unmercifully.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2016 at 12:03 PM with the headline "‘Bullied unmercifully’: Football player with epilepsy locked in locker, mom says."