Parents Furious and Hurt over JCPS's One-sided Probe

Mom Disputes Hospital Record

Dad says Max was Feeling fine Before Practice

This from Toni Konz at C-J:

The mother of 15-year-old Max Gilpin said Wednesday that she is "furious, angry and hurt" by the results of the Jefferson County Public Schools' inquiry into her son's death.

"They are taking no responsibility for what happened, and they only presented what made them look good," Michele Crockett, Max's mother, said in a telephone interview.

Crockett and Jeff Gilpin, Max's father, who both have expressed frustration in recent months with the pace of the district's investigation, had said they had hoped it would provide them some answers.

"We didn't get any answers today," Crockett said. "All we got were more questions."

Crockett and Jeff Gilpin, speaking through his attorney, say they specifically take issue with a portion of the investigation involving the expert opinion of Dr. Daniel Rusyniak, a specialist at Indiana University in emergency medicine and medical toxicology, with whom the school system consulted.

"According to Dr. Rusyniak, a history and physical form completed at the hospital, based on information supplied by Max's parents, indicated that Max was suffering from fever, congestion and difficulty breathing" before the practice last Aug. 20 at which he collapsed, Superintendent Sheldon Berman said during a press conference Wednesday.

Crockett said she was the person who gave the hospital Max's medical history, but she never told them that he had been suffering from any of those symptoms before the practice.

"I was telling them the symptoms he was exhibiting at the time he was brought in to the emergency room," she said. "I would not have known what symptoms he was exhibiting prior to the practice because I wasn't with him. He was with his dad."

In a previous interview with The Courier-Journal, Gilpin said Max was feeling fine in the days before his collapse...

The parents also complained that the defendant, Coach Jason Stinson, was notified on Monday of the JCPS report's Wednesday release but the family was never notified. Berman said he believed the JCPS attorney "was in touch with their attorneys yesterday."

Hal Friedman, an attorney representing Gilpin in the civil case, said "They were not notified, nor were their attorneys, that the school board would release its long-overdue report today, or that there would be a press conference."