High school athlete was forced to keep running in sweltering heat and died, lawsuit says
A 17-year-old student-athlete died the first day of high school football practice in Mississippi when he was forced to continue running in extreme heat and passed out, according to a new federal lawsuit.
The parents of Trey Laster are suing the Rankin County School District over his death in August 2022, a complaint filed Jan. 11 shows.
“No child should ever be in danger of losing their life in pursuit of a passion, especially under the supervision and instruction of adults who should know when to stop pushing these young athletes,” civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family, said in a Jan. 17 news release.
School district superintendent Scott Rimes denied the lawsuit’s allegations in a statement to McClatchy News Jan. 19.
“We all continue to grieve this loss, but neither the lawsuit nor the Plaintiffs’ attorneys have revealed the facts that are shown in the autopsy which they have a copy of,” Rimes said.
Student passes out, placed in a hot truck bed before dying
Varsity football practice began at 4 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2022, when there was a sweltering heat index of 103 degrees on the field at Brandon High School in Brandon, the complaint says.
Laster, a 6-foot-1, 328-pound lineman, stepped onto the field with excitement, looking forward to his senior year and the upcoming football season, as the sport was his “true passion,” according to the complaint.
Immediately, coaches had him do wind sprints as temperatures were at the highest peak, the complaint says.
Laster started stumbling, became dizzy, nauseous and vomited — all signs of heat exhaustion, an illness he was at high risk for because of his size, according to the complaint.
He was forced to continue sprints before he “vomited again and passed out from heat exhaustion,” the complaint says.
Instead of trying to cool Laster down or checking his body temperature, school district employees put him in the hot bed of a pickup truck, according to the complaint.
This only made Laster hotter, the complaint says.
First responders arrived and pulled the teen off the truck bed to perform CPR, according to the complaint, which says he was then taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
With their lawsuit, Laster’s parents, Phillip Laster Sr. and Ashanta Laster, of Pearl, accuse the school district of violating their son’s constitutional rights by creating the conditions on the field that led to his death and not taking proper precautions to prevent him from dying.
According to the lawsuit, he died of heat exhaustion — specifically exertional heat stroke, a “preventable” condition.
A report by the Rankin County coroner listed his cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia, the Clarion-Ledger reported.
What is exertional heat stroke?
Exertional heat stroke is when the body’s core temperature rises to around 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a National Athletic Trainer’s Association Position Statement on the condition published in 2002 in the National Library of Medicine.
Warning signs include an altered mental status, vomiting, seizures, hyperventilation and diarrhea.
The life-threatening condition can be treated if there’s a quick response and the person’s body temperature is lowered, according to the report.
Heat stroke can cause heart issues, such as cardiac arrhythmias, when the heart beats at an irregular rate, according to a 2022 report published in the National Library of Medicine.
The Mississippi High School Activities Association and the National Federation of High Schools, which the Rankin County School District is a member of, “specifically warned their schools of this preventable cause of death only a few days before Trey Laster died from (exertional heat stroke),” the lawsuit says.
According to the complaint, the school district was supposed to provide athletes with a two-week acclimatization period so they could get used to “significant physical activities” in the heat after summer break.
Laster “did not have any acclimatization period prior to this first practice” and “instead of being slowly worked into practice, he was immediately required to go through intense conditioning,” the complaint says.
After he passed out on the field, no preventative or cooling measures were taken by school district employees, who didn’t check Laster’s temperature, according to the lawsuit.
In his statement to McClatchy News, Rimes said “we fully stand behind our coaches, staff, personnel, and health professionals who have always been committed to protecting the health of our student athletes.”
In an interview with WLBT on Aug. 2, 2022, the day after Laster died, his parents described their son as a “gentle giant” and a “lovely kid.”
The Lasters’s lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, including for past medical expenses, past and future mental anguish and emotional distress, loss of companionship and past and future pain and suffering.
They’re requesting a jury trial.
“Trey’s tragic death could have been, and should have been, prevented by those in charge, and shows a troubling lack of adherence to guidelines surrounding heat exhaustion prevention,” Crump said in his statement.
This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 10:00 AM with the headline "High school athlete was forced to keep running in sweltering heat and died, lawsuit says."
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