Bowman family sues Bigfork Schools, coach, ex-A.D.
Jacob Doran/Bigfork Eagle — The Buckland family, of Irvine, Calif., takes a flying leap off the rocks at Wayfarer's Park in Bigfork last week. With cooler temperatures and precipitation on tap for the week, some are speculating that this late-arriving summer is already on the way out.
By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle
The parents of Jeffrey Bowman — the Bigfork High School student who died on August 20, 2007 following a collapse at football practice seven days earlier — have filed suit against Bigfork School District 38, BHS head football coach Bruce Corbett and then-BHS Activities Director Shannon Smith in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
The suit, seeking "actual and special damages" including funeral and medical expenses and a 12-member jury trial, was filed on Wednesday, August 13, by Dan Caplis on behalf of Bob and Troy Bowman.
Caplis is a high-profile lawyer from the Denver-based Caplis and Deasy firm. The Bowmans had recently moved to Bigfork from the Denver area when Jeffrey died and have since moved back.
An official cause of death was never released, but controversy swirled around Bowman, who died at Kalispell Regional Medical Center seven days after collapsing while running laps at the BHS football field.
The lawsuit states that Bowman died as a result of cardiac arrest and a resulting anoxic brain injury.
He was participating in practice despite the fact that he did not have a physical form on file with the school, a violation of both district and Montana High School Association policy.
The lawsuit alleges a lack of CPR and defibrillator training for staff, negligent supervision, outrageous conduct and a deprivation of parental rights at various points against both the district and Smith and Corbett individually.
In a statement sent by Bob and Troy Bowman, they state that Bigfork High "blatantly violated our legal and sacred right to decide what's best for our child."
They also state that medical records were turned over to Bigfork Schools that indicate "that it was the football practice that caused Jeff to collapse, and that Jeff would have been saved by the use of the school's defibrillator."
After the incident, the Bigfork School District commissioned an investigation by Missoula attorney Elizabeth Kaleva, a specialist in school law, that found the coaches on the field acted appropriately but the school's system for filing physicals and other permission forms was flawed. At the time, the Bowman family derided the report as an "insult" and a "charade."
BHS has since revised its procedures for handling athletic forms.
That investigation did not specifically examine air quality for August 13, 2007, a fact that upset the Bowmans at the time of the report's release.
The district's report indicated that head football coach Bruce Corbett and his assistant coaches took into account smoky conditions and modified practice accordingly, but did not give specific air quality information. Records from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality indicated air quality ranging from "Good" to "Moderate" for the majority of that day, with levels spiking around the time of the 8 p.m. practice into the "Unhealthy" category. Officials with that agency did note after the relase of the report that air quality can be highly localized and that the nearest reading station is in Kalispell.
The Bowmans also allege verbal and physical abuse by the coaches in the lawsuit, stating that the first coach to arrive after Bowman's collapse yelled at him to resume practice and the next coach to arrive "lifted him off the ground" by his waistband and then dropped him.
"We know now that in the real world there are bad people out there who will jeopardize the lives of children to win games," the Bowmans said in their statement. "A big verdict in this case will send a loud and clear message, which will help protect a lot of kids."
Bigfork School District Superintendent Russ Kinzer declined to comment on the case. The district is represented by Charles McNeil of the Missoula-based Garlington, Lohn, Robinson law firm.
Kinzer did say that Coach Corbett would remain the head coach of the Vikings football team this season, noting that twice as many players have come out for the team this season as last.
"That's a credit to Bruce and his coaching staff and the kids who hung in there last year," he said.