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."

Fallen PRP player's mother still wonders 'why?'

This from the Courier-Journal:

She questions district steps in son's death

Nearly two months after her son collapsed and later died from heat stroke suffered during football practice at Pleasure Ridge Park High School, Glenna Michele Crockett says she can't drive by the school without getting "a very sick feeling."

She says she's only been able to return to work for two days as a counselor at nearby Greenwood Elementary School, where one of her co-workers is married to an assistant coach who helped lead the Aug. 20 practice.

"I keep thinking I will go in, but I just can't," a composed, but frustrated Crockett said in an hour-long interview last week, where she talked about the death of her 15-year-old son, Max Gilpin, and her questions about why it happened.

She said she wonders why it has taken the Jefferson County Public School District so long to issue its findings on the case, when less than 48 hours after Max died, Superintendent Sheldon Berman said an initial review found "no violations whatsoever" and that "all guidelines were followed."

She said she wonders why she has not been interviewed by district investigators, given that she arrived at the field just moments after Max collapsed.

"I was there, and I would think they would want to talk to me," she said.

And most of all, she said, she questions why PRP head coach Jason Stinson and his assistants are still on the job, given that teachers suspected of improper conduct with students, such as inappropriate touching, are immediately suspended and reassigned.

"My son died, and these coaches are still coaching," she said...