A Michigan mother is suing her local school district, alleging that officials ignored vicious anti-gay bullying that prompted her son to attempt suicide.
Traci Matuschek (pictured) says the 15-year-old came out as bisexual to his junior varsity football teammates in August, before his sophomore year at Sterling Heights High School.
“He thought they were all his friends,” Matuschek said.
NBC News reports: After her son came out, however, Matuschek said his teammates started to bully him with homophobic slurs and remarks. According to the lawsuit, they would ask ZB questions about whether he would get aroused if he tackled them on the field or if he would look at them naked in the locker room. The alleged abuse turned physical in October, according to Matuschek. That’s when she said a teammate “stomped on” ZB during practice, leading him to be diagnosed with a concussion at a hospital. Neither the coaches nor the principal reported the incident to her family at the time, she said. While her son was on leave from school recovering, his teammates started to harass him online, Matuschek said. “He ended up being cyber bullied so bad he quit the team,” she added. The emotional distress led ZB to attempt suicide in November, and he spent a week in a hospital psychiatric ward, the lawsuit says. She said ZB has had mental health struggles, but the anti-gay bullying made him severely depressed. ZB, who spent last summer training, no longer plays or watches football, Matuschek said.
More from the Macomb Daily: He was called a “faggot” and “fag” and asked if he looks at other players’ genitalia in the locker room or gets sexually excited while playing, among other remarks. … The teen tried to kill himself by hanging himself in his bedroom, Matuschek said. His parents were able to stop him despite his efforts to keep them away by swinging a baseball bat, she stated. The ordeal has caused him and his parents to look at attending a different school next fall. Matuschek said the COVID-19 crisis solved the problem of in-school bullying. But she said some of the students who bullied him reside in their subdivision in Troy, and, “He’s afraid to go to the park or anywhere because he’s constantly looking over his shoulder,” she said.
Matuschek’s lawsuit alleges that the district violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs, as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. She is seeking more than $75,000 in damages for emotional distress and “loss of educational opportunities,” in addition to attorney fees.
The Warren Consolidated Schools district has not commented on the suit or filed a response to the complaint.
Watch a report from ABC 7 below.
