A Ridge View High School football player video recorded a teammate using the restroom while “disrobed” from the waist down and then shared the recording with students and athletes at the school and throughout the school district, according to a lawsuit.
On Dec. 15, 2021, a teammate climbed up over a restroom stall and videoed another student, identified as John Doe, as he was “exposed” from the waist down, the lawsuit alleged. Doe “looked up in shock and disbelief.” The bathroom was not properly monitored by district staff.
Doe was “emotionally disturbed and upset immediately” after being subject to voyeurism, the lawsuit claimed.
The teammate shared the video with fellow Ridge View students and athletes via social media and text messages. The video, according to the lawsuit, was “widespread” among students and athletes at various Richland 2 schools.
Doe suffered “severe harm and emotional injuries” and stopped playing football for Ridge View High School, according to the lawsuit. He was later ridiculed by his former teammates and other Richland 2 students.
The student’s mother informed law enforcement of what the lawsuit called a sexual assault, and the teammate who took the video and circulated it was criminally investigated, according to the lawsuit. It did not say if anyone was charged.
The lawsuit, originally filed in Richland County Court in December, was moved to federal court because of a claim under Federal Title IX law, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs that receive federal dollars. According to the lawsuit, Doe’s mother informed Ridge View administrators of the sexual assault, but reports about it were “actively concealed” instead of investigated by a Title IX compliance officer.
Richland 2 does not comment on pending litigation, a district spokesperson said.
Ridge View High School’s athletic programs have a history of hazing, bullying and sexual abuse, the lawsuit said, and previous reports of sexual abuse of minors were not investigated.
In September, the school district paid another student athlete and his family $285,000 to settle a separate lawsuit that involved a sexual assault in the school’s locker room.
That student was a member of Ridge View’s boys’ basketball team. According to a lawsuit, the student was “violently” sexually assaulted by his teammates in a locker room before a game in 2020.
He fought to stop the assault and screamed for his teammates to get off him, the suit said, and several other boys heard him and came to his defense. Afterwards, the student was “emotionally disturbed.” He told his coach about what happened, and the coach said he would “deal with this” after the game, the lawsuit alleged. The student sat out the game and eventually quit the team.
Some members of the basketball team were criminally charged by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department for their roles in the assault. A subsequent law enforcement investigation revealed that there had been multiple cases of sexual assault involving the same basketball players.
Because the students were charged as minors, their names were withheld by law enforcement.
Richland 2 likely knew or should’ve known about the abuse and it was responsible for supervising those involved in the program, according to the lawsuit settled last year. The lawsuit also claimed that Richland 2 did not provide training to its employees on sexual abuse or child abuse.
The district also declined to comment on that lawsuit.
