Relatives of two former Hoover High School football players this week filed a $30 million lawsuit against the Hoover Board of Education, superintendent, Hoover High athletic director and two former Hoover football coaches accused of abusing two players during football practice in August.
Family members of the two teenage boys claim that former Hoover High head football Coach Drew Gilmer and former defensive coordinator Adam Helms physically or sexually assaulted two of their players during two practices in August, causing the players physical harm, emotional distress and mental anguish.
Videos that circulated through national media showed Gilmer apparently pulling a player’s head to his groin and thrusting his hips toward the players’ face after the player had been taken down on the ground by another player.
In that incident, Helms forcibly removed the player’s helmet as Gilmer approached him and threw the helmet across the field, which the lawsuit claims shows Helms and Gilmer coordinated their actions and that Helms knew what Gilmer was about to do.
At another practice three days later, a video shows a coach identified as Gilmer charging across the field , grabbing another player by the facemask and throwing him to the ground, ripping his helmet off in the process. That player had to seek medical treatment due to injuries to his neck that resulted from the incident, the lawsuit claims.
“Gilmer and Helms not only inflicted bodily injury on the minors that required medical treatment and care, but D.G. and D.L. [the two minors] are suffering from severe emotional distress and mental anguish,” the lawsuit says. “Both minors shamefully and due to public ridicule and embarrassment went into isolation, afraid to be seen in public.”
The two minors left Hoover High School and enrolled in other high schools where they had no friends or relationships with teachers and staff and now must “battle with the extreme mental and emotional damages” due to actions by adults who were supposed to enhance their high school experience, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also claims that Gilmer and Helms were acting in their official job capacities when these incidents occurred and that the Board of Education, their employer, bears responsibility for their actions as well.
It also claims that the Hoover Board of Education, Superintendent Kevin Maddox and Athletic Director Harley Lamey “failed to conduct a thorough employment history of Gilmer and the numerous complaints against Gilmer and his abusive conduct of student athletes that was well known in the community and at each prior school where he coached. If so, they intentionally ignored the warning signs of Coach Gilmer’s irrational and extensive abusive conduct history and negligently and/or with reckless and wanton behavior chose to hire Gilmer and Helms knowing the risk and foreseeability that Gilmer and Helms’s abusive conduct towards student athletes would result in and cause injury and harm to students as suffered by the minor plaintiffs.
“The negligent hiring and retention sit squarely in the face of the board members, the superintendent and athletic director who acted collectively and individually to hire Gilmer and Helms, who they knew or should have known were physically and mentally abusive to student athletes,” the lawsuit claims.
The families filed a criminal complaint on the minors’ behalf against Gilmer and Helms, and that complaint was investigated by the sexual victims unit of the Hoover Police Department, the lawsuit said. The Bessemer Division of the Jefferson County district attorney’s office declined to file felony charges, but the family is still pursuing a third-degree criminal assault complaint, the suit said.
Gilmer and Helms resigned within three days of the second incident after being placed on administrative leave for an investigation into the incidents.
Efforts to reach Gilmer and Helms for comment were unsuccessful. Merrick Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Hoover Board of Education, said school officials were declining to comment about the lawsuit because the litigation is ongoing.
When Gilmer and Helms resigned, the superintendent issued a statement that said “The safety and well-being of our students and staff continue to be our top priorities. We maintain high expectations for our employees and students. At this time, our focus is dedicated to supporting our football players and coaching staff.”
