Mead superintendent says he deleted racial discrimination references in hazing report

A Mead High football player assaulted at a 2023 football camp would, as a fifth-grader, dress for football early in the morning for a late-afternoon practice, according to his father.

Four months after the student-athlete was hazed at the June 2023 camp, the father said his son couldn't wait for football to finish.

The father, at times through tears, told a jury Thursday how his son was traumatized when his teammates assaulted him with a battery-powered massage gun at a camp at Eastern Washington University. The player was one of two pinned down by their teammates and abused with the massage gun.

Marcus Sweetser, a Spokane attorney representing two former Mead High School football players and their parents in the lawsuit against the district, said the hazing was racially motivated as a group of white players targeted Black players at the camp.

Mead School District Superintendent Travis Hanson admitted during testimony Thursday morning to deleting references to racial discrimination from a district fact-finding report on the camp hazing incidents.

Hanson said he made the deletions under advice from attorneys, who told him the district investigation was intended to be a report under the district's policy and procedure for sexual harassment investigations.

"Discriminatory behavior does not fall into the category of sexual harassment," Hanson told the jury.

Hanson said there was no separate discriminatory harassment investigation.

After changing the report, Hanson told Mead football players and their families at a meeting that the camp incidents were not racially motivated and there was no evidence Mead acted to cover up anything.

One of the players Sweetser is representing is Black and four of the five athletes who filed suits against the district the past two years are Black.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese, who is presiding over the civil case, ruled before trial that the district was liable by failing to protect students from "foreseeable harm," did not follow mandatory reporting laws after receiving several reports of sexual harassment and assault, and engaged in gender-based and racial discrimination.

Sweetser is asking the district to pay $20 million to $50 million to his clients, after the district failed to protect the players and report the assaults. Sweetser said his clients suffered emotional trauma from the hazing and the continued harassment by teammates in the following months.

The jury will determine appropriate damages.

Teammates recorded the camp assaults on their phones and the videos circulated in the community.

Mead coaches and administrators were made aware of the hazing and videos in the weeks and months following the incidents, but they did not investigate or notify the victims' parents until eight months later, or February 2024.

Hanson said he was notified of the hazing Jan. 24, 2024, but an investigation into the incident didn't start until late February. Hanson testified it wasn't in his "purview" to initiate an investigation.

Sweetser said state guidelines dictate harassment, intimidation and bullying reports require a prompt response. He asked Hanson if waiting almost a month to investigate was prompt.

"Prompt needs to be taken into context," Hanson replied.

Sweetser then showed the jury Hanson's deposition video from November 2025. Hanson was asked if he would characterize the period from Jan. 24, 2024 to Feb. 20, 2024, when the investigation started, as prompt.

Hanson hesitated in the video and said, "No, there's a significant delay there."

Hanson said Thursday he met with one of Sweetser's clients, who is Black, and his mother in March 2024. In that meeting, the player told Hanson the white players were targeting their Black teammates and that the player has been called racial slurs by his white teammates after the assaults.

Four days after the March meeting, Josh Westermann, Mead's Title IX and harassment, intimidation and bullying compliance officer, submitted his investigative report to Hanson. Hanson agreed with Sweetser Thursday that Westermann found a "concerning and persistent pattern of racist comments and discriminatory harassment" in Mead's athletic programs.

The report also concluded the district needed to take "decisive action."

Hanson admitted to, after consulting with attorneys, deleting the sections of the report that dealt with discriminatory harassment without Westermann's knowledge.

"I didn't feel the need to consult with him on that," Hanson said.

He said Westermann's role in the investigation was "fact finder" and his role was "decision maker." He said Westermann provided him with a set of facts and he made the final decision on what the report included.

A member of the jury, which is allowed to submit questions to witnesses, asked Hanson whether he knew when a new investigative report to address racial discrimination would take place. Hanson said he spoke with Westermann about that at the time but did not settle on a "formal date."

In April 2024, Hanson said he wrote an email to the Black victim's mother saying the investigative report was narrow in scope and did not reference racial discrimination.

Hanson admitted to sending the altered report to the victims' families, Mead School Board and news media without identifying that references to racial targeting and discrimination in the report were deleted.

Sweetser also noted inconsistent statements from Hanson regarding when he learned of the hazing incidents.

Hanson told the jury Thursday he was notified in January 2024, but he wrote in a termination letter to Mead football head coach Keith Stamps that district administrators first learned of the camp assaults in February 2024. Stamps was fired for failing to investigate and report the players' misconduct, according to the letter that was sent to media outlets.

Sweetser asked Hanson whether he was trying to conceal the fact he delayed taking action for nearly a month when he wrote February 2024 in the letter instead of January. Hanson said he was not trying to conceal, but he understands how that might be interpreted.

In May 2024, Hanson addressed the Mead football community about the camp hazing incidents.

Sweetser asked Hanson Thursday whether he told Stamps or then-Mead High principal Kimberly Jensen not to point fingers at each other in front of the community. Hanson said he told them "something along those lines."

Sweetser said in opening statements that his clients have anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from the assaults and continued verbal attacks from teammates.

The father who testified Thursday said his son was reserved and spoke little when he returned from camp in June 2023.

He said his son isolated himself and refused to eat dinner with the family. Then, his grades dipped and he became more agitated and short-tempered.

By that winter, his son spent time in the basement and slammed doors, saying he didn't want to talk about what bothered him.

In February 2024, Jensen called the father and mother of the victim and informed them of the camp assault, the father said. The parents approached their son about it.

"It was difficult," the father said. "He was angry. He was embarrassed. It took a while for him to admit to us that it happened."

The father further testified:

His son kept saying he didn't want to talk about it. He was sick to his stomach, saying he couldn't put that emotion into words as he started crying.

They sent their son to a counselor and set up a meeting with Jensen, but when they showed up, the doors were locked and Jensen wasn't there. They received no communication from Jensen.

Meanwhile, their son was becoming more withdrawn each day and still wouldn't talk to his parents about it. The parents first saw the videos March 7, the father said.

He called the district's investigative report "disgraceful."

The son left Mead for Mt. Spokane High School, where he continued to be withdrawn and didn't eat dinner with his parents. He was also anxious in public and started wearing headphones in school to drown out interaction with others.

The father said his son saw one of his attackers at a sporting goods store and ran out and sat in the car.

The son slightly improved after counseling, the father said, but refused to talk about the assault with the counselor.

He said he sees flashes of his son's old self, but they're few and far between. He said the hazing cost him time with his son.

He used to be able to do anything with him and he won't get that back, the father said through tears.

He said his son graduated from high school a week ago and plans to try a firefighting training program in Oregon.

The trial resumes Monday.

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