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Niagara Gazette: Wilson case goes to civil trial; Parent Kary Sidote lashes out at parent of young player

Published: July 08, 2009 08:44 pm print this story

HAZING CASE: Civil suit looms for Wilson School District
By Bill Wolcott
Niagara Gazette

Lawyers for the alleged victims in the Wilson baseball team case are preparing to take their civil lawsuits to court against the school district.

A jury trial made up from a Niagara County pool is expected. Attorney Terry Connors represents parents of two junior varsity players. Chris O’Brien and Steve Boyd represent the parents of one. The lawyers would not divulge what monetary damages the families are seeking, and no trial date for the lawsuit has been set.

“If there were a way for the jury to turn back the clock, the parents would take that in a heartbeat,” O’Brien said Wednesday. “No one wants to be involved in a lawsuit.”

At the coaches’ news conference Wednesday, Kary Sidote, mother of player defendant Christopher Sidote Jr., called the civil suit “baloney” and said the lawsuit is about money.

“They’ve even put their kids on the line for cash,” she said. “You want to know what the main motivation is? They want money.”

Chris Sidote Sr. offered: “The student body has moved past it. It’s the parents.”

However, O’Brien said his firm has made overtures to the school district and tried to get the matter resolved short of a lawsuit. “Whatever the jury decides, we don’t want a penny more,” the lawyer said.

O’Brien said the families of the victims have incurred expenses, including counseling, since charges were brought against three varsity players and two coaches. Connors said the civil suit was not affected by charges being dismissed against coaches William Atlas and Thomas Baia by Town Justice George Berger.

O’Brien said the facts show that boys were being hazed on the back of the bus, that one of the charged boys had been hazed before, and that there were no coaches on the back of the bus. He asserts there was negligence, and that the civil case is against the school district, not the players or the coaches.

“We stand by our kids,” Connors said. “We stand by their statements and we’re moving forward.

“We’re going to be filing a lawsuit in next two weeks.”

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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