• Hazing Deaths Database:
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Hank Nuwer: selected media coverage
  • World Hazing Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Chicago Tribune: St. Ignatius swim team incident leads to lawsuit

August 19, 2009 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

Link
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-school-hazing-suit-19aug19,0,3026455.story

abstract:

chicagotribune.com
Paralyzed teen’s parents sue Chicago school over alleged hazing
Swimming pool injury happened during 2007 water polo practice in St. Ignatius College Prep, lawsuit says
By Kristen Mack
TRIBUNE REPORTER

The family of a former St. Ignatius College Prep student sued the school Monday for negligence over an alleged hazing incident that left him quadriplegic 2 ½ years ago.

Christopher Connolly, then a 15-year-old freshman, suffered the injuries when he struck his head on the bottom of the school swimming pool while practicing with the junior-varsity water polo team in February 2007.

The lawsuit alleged an assistant coach told some classmates to throw snowballs at “Flounder,” a derogatory nickname he had given Connolly. As he tried to avoid being hit by “a barrage” of snowballs, kickboards, buoys and other pool equipment, Connolly was instructed by another coach to “get in” the pool, the suit said.

Connolly “was forced to dive into the swimming pool,” hitting the pool bottom and fracturing his vertebrae, according to the suit and his attorney, Steven Greenberger.

Greenberger said the injury has devastated the family.

The suit, filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks undisclosed monetary damages from St. Ignatius. The coaches were not named as defendants.

The school, 1076 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Chicago, didn’t not return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit.

”It’s not just a monetary thing. It’s the physical and emotional expense,” said Connolly’s mother, Helen, 60, who filed the suit with her husband, Dennis. “He can’t be left alone. I hope I can live long enough to take care of him.”

Connolly, now 17, uses a wheelchair and needs help getting dressed, bathing and picking things off the floor. Connolly has regained some use of his arms and hands with “extensive and intensive therapy,” Greenberger said.

After nearly four months in the hospital, Connolly returned to St. Ignatius in fall 2007 for his sophomore year. He later transferred to Walter Payton College Prep High School, where he will return for his senior year next month. He is a member of the National Honor Society and is thinking about where he will go to college next year.

”I’m not ruling anything out at this point,” he said.
d. in Chicago, didn’t not return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit.

”It’s not just a monetary thing. It’s the physical and emotional expense,” said Connolly’s mother, Helen, 60, who filed the suit with her husband, Dennis. “He can’t be left alone. I hope I can live long enough to take care of him.”

Connolly, now 17, uses a wheelchair and needs help getting dressed, bathing and picking things off the floor. Connolly has regained some use of his arms and hands with “extensive and intensive therapy,” Greenberger said.

After nearly four months in the hospital, Connolly returned to St. Ignatius in fall 2007 for his sophomore year. He later transferred to Walter Payton College Prep High School, where he will return for his senior year next month. He is a member of the National Honor Society and is thinking about where he will go to college next year.

”I’m not ruling anything out at this point,” he said.

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Sons of the Dawn

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths Database:

… Read More

Suicide allegedly tied to hazing at Nebraska-Lincoln

Here is the link. Rahat Jalil, UNL Lambda Phi Epsilon

Thank you, AFA

New scholarship from Brazil: Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/psicolargum.39.103.AO02 Trotes na universidade e violência de gênero: uma revisão integrativa de literatura Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review   Novatadas en la universidad y violencia de género: una revisión integradora de la literatura Adriane Roso https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7471-133X Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), adriane.roso@ufsm.br Janine Gudolle de Souza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-4190 […]

A Poland-Union City Love story.

Here is the link. Hank   My wife Gosia earned her Green Card in October 2019. She gave eight-weeks’ notice at her chief accountant job in Poland and shipped what she could to Indiana. “Wait, how did a fellow from Indiana meet a Polish lass,” you may ask? I persuaded Gosia in June of 2015 […]

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress