YOUNGSTOWN — About a week after a third federal lawsuit was filed against Ursuline High School, a local lawsuit was filed Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by the same law firm who filed the other three.

The Chandra Law Firm of Cleveland filed the suit on behalf of Mother Smith on behalf of her minor daughter, known as Daughter Smith, against Ursuline High School, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown and Margaret Damore, assistant principal, who also was named in previous suits. It states Daughter Smith is a former Ursuline student.

The filing is a state-law civil action and alleges claims for Ohio legal violations, “including statutes establishing civil liability for criminal acts like failure to report abuse, negligence, negligent training, supervision, discipline, hiring and retention, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.”

The new lawsuit alleges multiple warnings about a planned physical attack on Daughter Smith during the lunch period on April 10, 2024, but Damore and other school officials failed to prevent it, resulting in serious physical harm to the then-freshman student. The lawsuit also lists a guidance counselor and two teachers — one of whom has since resigned — but they are not named as defendants.

The lawsuit states that on April 9, 2024, during school, “Friend 2” told Daughter Smith that “Friend 1” was telling other students she planned to fight Daughter the next day at school. “Friend 1” also texted Daughter that she planned to fight her.

Daughter told her mother about the threats, and Mother contacted Ursuline officials that night and the morning of the fight to alert them. Mother Smith emailed the school’s guidance counselor April 9 and the guidance counselor responded “thanks for letting me know. I also let administration know. I will check in with Daughter first thing in the morning. Please keep me posted if you hear anything else,” the lawsuit alleges.

The next day, April 10, the guidance counselor called Mother and told her she notified Damore of the threatened fight and claimed Damore notified the administration and teachers of the threat, and they were “on standby” and assured Mother her daughter was safe.

During second period, “Friend 2,” hoping to prevent the fight, asked for permission to go to her locker and instead of going back to class, she went to the guidance counselor’s office to tell her about the planned fight. The counselor called Daughter and the friend who made the threats into her office separately, the lawsuit alleges. Daughter told the counselor she was not planning to fight and was going to avoid Friend 1, so the counselor thought the fight was not going to occur and dismissed the situation.

Daughter then saw a social media post from Friend 1 saying she was still going to fight her, accused her of snitching and alleging daughter was scared of her. Friend 1 then screamed at Daughter in front of the whole class to “Stand up! Fight me now!” after which the teacher threatened to issue her a detention, the lawsuit states.

“In the school cafeteria, Friend 1 attacked and seriously injured Daughter just as planned, and Damore didn’t even tell Mother about it,” the lawsuit states.

As Daughter was waiting in line to get food, Friend 1 came up behind her and started screaming at her, and then took a boxer stance with her fists up. Friend 1 started punching Daughter in the head and face, and grabbed Daughter’s hair and slammed her head into the wall, the lawsuit alleges. Friend 1 then threw Daughter to the ground by her hair. While Daughter was on the ground, Friend 1 punched and assaulted her repeatedly. Ursuline administrators finally broke up the fight and escorted Friend 1 to the office.

While being treated by her friends in the bathroom, Daughter was “dazed and confused and experiencing memory loss,” the lawsuit states. Damore did eventually check on Daughter and escorted her to the office. However, the lawsuit states it was Friend 2 who contacted Mother, not Damore.

Mother went to the school and despite Daughter showing signs of concussion, no one from the school called for medical attention. After speaking with Mother, Damore admitted to notifying only two teachers about the planned fight and did not notify the principal or anyone who supervised lunch period, the lawsuit states.

Daughter was diagnosed with a concussion at the hospital and missed two weeks of school after the attack, the lawsuit states.

On April 11, the day after the assault, Mother called the diocese to report what happened and on April 12, then-superintendent Mary Fiala called her back and said she was “sorry” for what happened. On April 15, Mother reported the attack to Youngstown police. Damore never contacted police or children’s services as required, the suit alleges.

On April 17, 2024, Mother contacted Safer School Ohio and filed a disciplinary complaint about Damore. Later that day, principal Matthew Sammartino contacted Mother and asked her to withdraw the complaint, which Mother refused, the lawsuit states.

PREVIOUS LAWSUITS

On Nov. 17, a third federal lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court against Ursuline and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown alleging misconduct against a student, this time alleging that an openly gay freshman boy was ridiculed by football players for his sexual preference and “sexual stereotyping.”

The suit also alleges that the student’s and his guardian’s requests to school officials to make the behaviors stop were ignored.

This suit alleges misconduct during the 2023-2024 school year — one year earlier than earlier allegations — involving a boy who was 14 when he enrolled in Ursuline as a freshman around August 2023.The boy, referred to in the lawsuit by the pseudonym “Grandson,” wore makeup and was “harassed, bullied and ridiculed … because he is gay and because of sexual stereotyping,” the lawsuit alleges.

An initial lawsuit was filed in early September over alleged hazing and assaults that occurred during a football trip in the summer of 2023. Ursuline later canceled its football season. A second lawsuit filed a week late alleged sexual harassment of a female Ursuline student by an Ursuline football player.

Earlier this month, the initial lawsuit was expanded to include allegations brought by a second football player of hazing during a summer 2024 football trip and other allegations dating back to 2022.