Attorneys for Lehighton Area School District and two of its middle school football coaches are asking for the dismissal of a lawsuit stemming from an alleged hazing incident in 2019.

Parents of four Lehighton Area School District students filed a lawsuit in Carbon County Court in February alleging the students were sodomized while left unsupervised before Lehighton Area Middle School football practice.

The lawsuit names the district, the middle school, as well as two middle school football coaches, Jason Muffley and Jacen Nalesnik.

According to the complaint, three 14-year-old male students and a 15-year-old male student “suffered harm due to ongoing physical and sexual assaults, and a sexually hostile and physically violent environment at Lehighton Area Middle School,” which the parents allege Nalesnik and Muffley “failed to correct” despite having knowledge of the culture.

“There is nothing to support the claim that Nalesnik and Muffley had a subjective appreciation of the risk of harm and acted or failed to act in conscious disregard of that risk,” attorneys John Freund and Alyssa Hicks wrote in preliminary objections to the complaint, which were scheduled for argument Monday in front of Common Pleas Judge Steven Serfass. “It is reasonably safe to assume based on Nalesnik and/or Muffley’s alleged response of ‘knock off the horseplay’ that no student provided sufficient detail as to what was going on.”

Students, according to the complaint, were directed to go to the middle school field house before practice to change into their practice clothes. Parents claim the students were unsupervised during this time.

“While the students were alone in the field house, members of the team hazed, bullied and physically and sexually assaulted seventh-grade team members, including the four students involved in the lawsuit,” attorney Slade McLaughlin wrote in the complaint.

The sexual abuse, parents allege, included sodomy involving a broomstick. Several other players placed their buttocks and genitalia on the faces of the four students.

Parents allege one of the students alerted Nalesnik and Muffley to the “acts of violence” and the coaches told team members to “stop the horseplay.”

Freund and Hicks, however, argued that there are no allegations students told coaches of any sexual abuse.

Bruises inflicted upon the minors was “readily observable,” but the defense argued that football is a contact sport and any alleged sexual abuse would not be “reasonably foreseeable” based on visible bruising alone.

Parents, who allege one count of negligence, are asking for compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants, individually and jointly, for an amount in excess of $50,000 dollars, together with interest and damages for pre-judgment and post-judgment delay.

“The fact that the notice was provided to two school district employees and not the superintendent is not a reason to dismiss the action,” attorneys Paul Lauricella and Gaetano D’Andrea wrote in response to the complaint dismissal request. “The defendants’ cavalierly argue that only the principal or school board can discipline students. The defendants’ protests that the coaches were impotent to promote order and discipline during practice is simply too disingenuous to warrant a response.”

Serfass has yet to rule on the preliminary objections and dismissal request