Former Piedmont football player sues over hazing

The mother of a former Piedmont High School student-athlete has sued the school and its former football coach over a harassment incident last year.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in District Court in Huntsville and names then-football coach Steve Smith, the Piedmont City School District and several student-athletes involved in the incident. Huntsville attorney Teri Mastando is representing the student.

The suit seeks compensatory damages “in an amount that will fully compensate him for the physical injuries, mental distress, anguish, pain, humiliation, embarrassment, suffering and concern that he has suffered as a direct and/or proximate result of the statutory and common law violations as set out herein.”

Smith, who is no longer with the school, could not be reached for comment. Schools Superintendent Mike Hayes did not return a request for comment.

It is the second time in two years Smith and the district have been sued by a parent of a football player over hazing/harassment.

In 2021, a mother of a former Piedmont football player who was assaulted by teammates filed a suit. The complaint said the student was grabbed by the several players while they forced a car key into the victim’s anal region as part of a team ritual called “keying.”

Three of the players involved in that incident were charged with misdemeanor third-degree assault.

According to the suit filed Wednesday, the student, identified as C.W. and who has since transferred from Piedmont, was allegedly assaulted Aug. 25 by six teammates in the fieldhouse locker room.

The complaint cites a “horrific initiation ritual that members of the Piedmont High School Football team attempted to conduct on him.”

“The practice of ‘keying’ players (forcing a car or truck key into a player’s anus and twisting it) as a means for team members to discipline, bully and humiliate their teammates has been a long-standing practice in the Piedmont High School football program,” the suit says.

Though the student was not “keyed,” the suit says, “One of the Student Defendants turned to C.W. and stated ‘we are going to initiate you’ with a handful of keys in his hand. Plaintiff C.W., having knowledge of what these ‘initiation practices’ entail said in response ‘no I am good on that’, and fearfully walked to another side of the locker room.”

Then, while attempting to flee the locker room, C.W. “was beaten up by the Student Defendants, outnumbered six to one” and sustained minor injuries, the suit says.

The student told his mother about the incident and she filed a police report.

The next day, according to the suit, “the principal, Adam Clemons, called Plaintiff C.W. to his office for a meeting, including Coach Smith who were informed by C.W. as to what had occurred. In response, Principal Clemons and Coach Smith, called the involved Student Defendants to discuss.”

Smith met with the football team the day after the meeting with the principal and the students. In this meeting, the lawsuit says, Smith talked about the ‘good old days’ in that they were able to keep guns in their cars at school, had more freedom as highschoolers, etc.

“In this same line of speech, he addressed the group of young men and told them ‘you should not make fun of people that are easily offended …'”