YOUNGSTOWN A federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed in connection with an alleged hazing incident involving the Ursuline High School football team earlier in the summer.

According to a press release, a lawsuit was filed on Tuesday against Ursuline High School, along with Principal Matthew Sammartino, Assistant Principal Margaret Damore, head coach Dan Reardon, assistant coaches Tim McGlynn and Christian Syrianoudis, along with several players and their families on behalf of a student who was allegedly hazed, physically assaulted, sexually assaulted and subjected to the creation and dissemination of child pornography.

The suit also names several students and their parents as defendants.

These alleged incidents occurred on a multi-state trip the football team took back in June of 2025 over the course of nine days.

The lawsuit brings several details to light regarding the circumstances surrounding the allegations. According to the release, the players allegedly held the student down, stripped him, humiliated him and sexually assaulted him.

Additionally, the suit alleges that several other students recorded video of the incident and posted it to the team's group chat on Snapchat. These videos were later transmitted to other Ursuline students and the community at large, according to the suit.

Specifically, the suit alleges that on the first night of the trip, two players came to the victim's room for his "initiation," causing him to hide in the closet. These students allegedly grabbed him by the throat, pulled him out of the closet, threw him onto the bed and sexually assaulted him.

The suit alleges another incident like this occurred on the fourth night of the trip.

According to the suit, the players openly discussed past and planned hazing and assaults in front of the coaches, who allegedly dismissed it as "just boys being boys." That sentiment was allegedly echoed by the assistant coach as well.

Meanwhile, when the incident was brought up to Principal Matthew Sammartino and Assistant Principal Margaret Damore, Sammartino allegedly showed a lack of interest, but Damore acknowledged, "This is bad."

Nevertheless, the suit alleges that the school did not investigate the matter or take any disciplinary action, despite having sufficient evidence.

"Once the coaches become aware of information that this kind of misbehavior and this kind of hazing and sexual assault and assaults are going on, they should have put a stop to it immediately," Attorney Subodh Chandra, who is representing the victim's family, said, "The complaint alleges that they didn't even go in and check on the boys when this activity was going on. And there are multiple text messages throughout that support those allegations. In addition, once the school administrators became aware of the problems, they should have immediately launched their own investigation, not just referred it to law enforcement. They had an independent obligation to investigate. They had an independent obligation to discipline players and discipline their own employees, the coaches and they have failed to do so; that's what the suit alleges. And for those reasons, the combination of misconduct, malfeasance, and nonfeasance alleged here is extremely serious."

Further, the suit claims that a meeting was scheduled with Sammartino and Damore, but before the meeting took place, the child's mother began receiving texts from other team mothers who were aware of the meeting, telling her this could result in the season being canceled and asking her to be sure what she wanted to come out of the meeting. 

The suit also alleges that the victim's sister had to transfer schools after facing intimidation by some of the players. One of the players allegedly showed up at her place of work and other places she frequented to allegedly intimidate her into not speaking up on behalf of her brother.

One specific incident mentioned in the suit is when one player and his friends allegedly stared at the victim's sister in an "intimidating fashion" at a restaurant.

The suit further alleges that Ursuline attempted to cover up the incidents by deleting posts from the Ursuline High School Facebook page, as well as other football social media accounts.

Furthermore, the suit alleges Sammartino and Damore warned players not to say anything about the incident and that the matter was under investigation.

The suit goes on to allege that Ursuline provided two "fraudulent" statements in the form of press releases describing the alleged attacks as an "isolated incident" only involving a "limited number" of players. When the alleged incidents actually involved at least 25 players, including 12 assailant players and multiple witnesses and victims.

The suit further goes into coach Daniel Reardon and Timothy McGlynn's histories of misconduct the suit alleges the school was aware of before hiring them.

Specifically, the suit alleges that Reardon, the head coach, had previously resigned from Ursuline under "a cloud of negativity" in 2011 due to his alleged recruitment of players who reflected poorly on the school and "turn a blind eye" to their misconduct.

Meanwhile, McGlynn resigned from his position as head football coach at Champion High School in 2020 due to allegations of physical abuse and threats against players, which was first reported by 21 News in 2020. 

"And the suit alleges that the diocese official actually recommended against the hiring of one of the coaches," attorney Subodh Chandra, who is representing the victim's family, said, "and yet that coach was hired anyway, at the insistence of the high school president."

The suit states that Ursuline should have conducted a background check before hiring McGlynn, and says that if they did, they were negligent for hiring him.

"This case is about accountability. No family should have to endure the trauma this family suffered at the hands of other students and then at the hands of school officials who, as the suit alleges, excused, ignored and even tried to silence them," said Chandra, in a press release.

"Coaches and administrators and students and players need to get the message: hazing is criminal, and when you add and layer onto that, assault, battery, sexual assault, disseminating child porn, disseminating somebody's intimate images. You're talking about serious misconduct that violates both federal and state law," Chandra said, "You're talking about serious misconduct that violates both federal and state law. At its most fundamental, this is a violation of the Civil Rights Act Title nine, which prohibits sex discrimination and sexual harassment. So I don't know why or how a culture could develop of the type of culture being alleged in this suit, but it does appear that there is a very serious problem at Ursuline High School and our clients are determined to hold everyone accountable."

Chandra said anyone with further information can reach out to his office. 

"What the suit alleges is that this problem of hazing at Ursuline high school went back years that this had become a part of the endemic culture of the school and the football program, and the suit alleges the coaches were aware of it and did nothing about it under those circumstances," Chandra added, "And when you're talking about allegations of serious sexual assault, serial sexual assault, you're talking about a very, very serious problem on a national scale. I mean, this ranks up there among the cases that we've seen nationally of a hazing culture that is completely out of control."

21 News reached out to Ursuline's School Principal and the Youngstown Catholic Diocese.

In a statement, the Diocese spokesperson said, “We’ve just received the complaint today. We’re reviewing it with our own legal counsel. We have no further comment at this time.” 

Read the lawsuit here: