The first of what’s expected to be at least several lawsuits was filed Friday against the Beaverton School District, faulting it for employing a head football coach who allegedly downed four oversized beers and then slapped or grabbed a dozen sleeping teens in the middle of the night at a sports camp this summer.
The suit claims the district ignored “several red flags” about then-Westview High School coach Jamal Jones. He posed an “emotional” and “physical” threat to players — culminating in his “battery” of multiple students in the early morning hours of June 25, their third night of a football camp at Linfield University, the suit alleges.
According to police, some of the players captured the incident on cellphone video as Jones apparently pointed his own cellphone flashlight on other players’ faces, climbed over them and slapped them awake.
Some players told police they felt little or no pain, while others described it as significant, with one player rating his pain an 8 out of 10.
The suit is one of three that Portland attorney Michael Fuller said he plans to file on behalf of players and their families in coming weeks.
In Friday’s lawsuit, Tiare Kurkowski Afoa is seeking up to $125,000 for her 17-year-old son.
Jones allegedly slapped the teen around 1:30 a.m., immediately startling and confusing her son, Kurkowski Afoa said. It also stung and left a red welt on the teen’s face for hours, she said.
In the longer-term aftermath, she said the emotional toil prevented him from showing up to the first team training sessions for the fall season.
She said she earlier had considered transferring her son and his 15-year-old brother, who also is on the team, to other high schools after a rough and anxiety-ridden first season with Jones at the helm last year. But in the end, she decided to keep them at Westview.
“There was so much aggressive behavior — yelling at them, grabbing them by the back of the neck, telling them they were fat or obese,” Kurkowski Afoa said of Jones.
Several student-athletes on Westview’s football team have transferred to play at other metro area high schools after last year’s football season.
The Oregonian/OregonLive also confirmed that two other coaches on the team left to work at other schools, but their motive for leaving Westview High School isn’t clear.
A spokesperson for the school district, Shellie Bailey-Shah, declined to comment because of the pending litigation.
Jones, through his defense attorney Bracken McKey, also declined to comment. Although only the school district is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, much of the lawsuit pertains to Jones.
In July, Jones was charged in Yamhill County Circuit Court with 12 counts of misdemeanor harassment for “offensive physical contact” with 12 students at the summer sports camp. The charges against him don’t include reportedly slapping another coach awake around 2 a.m., according to that coach. Jones is scheduled to enter a plea next Thursday.
Jones resigned as Westview High’s coach the day after the alleged slapping spree, and the district has since hired former Ducks player Dan Weaver as head coach. Jones is a Hillsboro police officer and was placed on administrative leave.
McMinnville police were called to the sports camp at the university about 4:30 a.m. by the parent of one of the players who was on their way to pick up their child but knew police were closer and wanted police to check on the players first, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the criminal case against Jones. Police arrived to find players packing up and leaving with their parents or driving themselves home.
Jones told police he and other coaches had been taking shifts monitoring the gym where the players were sleeping because on the previous two nights some of the players had been rowdy and not gone to sleep when they were supposed to.
According to police, Jones denied slapping or striking any of the students and instead said he had been “tapping” their faces to “lighten the mood” because he and the other coaches “had to get tough on them” during daytime practices.
The probable cause affidavit added that Jones had been drinking before the incident, telling McMinnville officers on scene that he drank four Coors tallboys (16-ounce beers) between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Students told officers that they could smell alcohol on Jones as well.
Police said Jones described his players, who are from the Bethany area, as “entitled” and “not tough nosed type of kids.”
Jones’ alleged comments are infuriating to Kurkowski Afoa.
“Are you kidding me?” she said in an interview. “My kids are the last thing from privileged.”
Kurkowski Afoa said football is a huge part of her two sons’ lives. And though transferring to another school had been an option, ceasing to play was not, even under Jones, she said. She believes Jones was a major contributor to a decline in the team’s success — from an 8-5 winning season in 2022, the year before Jones started, to a 2-7 losing season in 2023, when Jones led the team.
She said the district ignored complaints about Jones’ demeanor.
“I feel like I have so many things to say, you’d have to bleep every word out of my mouth,” Kurkowski Afoa said. “I feel like they dropped the ball on this. They could have handled this so differently. I’m so sad and disappointed.”
Before he led Westview High’s team, Jones was the head coach at Franklin High School in Southeast Portland in 2022. Prior to his stint in Portland, Jones was a coach in California.
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