Family Settles Suit Over Death of South Carolina High School Football Player

A South Carolina family has settled a lawsuit filed after a 14-year-old high school football player collapsed after an intense practice and died, news outlets reported.

The suit, filed against Lexington County School District 1 over the death River Bluff High School student Lewis Simpkins, was settled without a trial through a resolution process. The amount of money involved in the agreement wasn’t listed in court documents.

The complaint was filed in 2018, or two years after Lewis collapsed in August 2016 after a more than two-hour practice that included running and doing drills in full pads. Former players described the day as “the hardest practice they had ever had,” according to the complaint.

With the heat index around 95 degrees, the teen collapsed after drills and began gasping for air. He eventually became unresponsive.

The suit, filed by the youth’s parents, claimed officials failed to protect Lewis from dangerous conditions.