A northwest Indiana family says their 15-year-old freshman is done with Valparaiso High School after an off-season football drill left him with a concussion, a broken wrist, and a flood of violent threats from other students. His father, Jason Solomon, says the workout was supposed to be light-contact; players were not wearing helmets, and his son, Malakai, wound up in the hospital for an emergency CT scan with slurred speech, balance problems, and what he described as a “TV static” effect in his vision. The family says he is now too afraid to go back.
What happened at practice
According to Solomon, two teammates hit Malakai hard during a drill, knocking him to the ground so that his head struck padded concrete. He says no one from the school contacted the family afterward.
Solomon told CBS Chicago that Malakai texted him from school after the hit, that his words were slurred and he could not walk straight, and that the family rushed him to the hospital, where doctors ordered a CT scan. The family says things only got worse when threatening messages from other students started coming in, serious enough that they called the police. They have hired an attorney and say they plan to pull Malakai from Valparaiso High School altogether, according to CBS Chicago.
School response
Valparaiso High School put out a statement stressing that “Player health and safety is paramount to what we do” and saying staff rely on onsite athletic trainers for initial evaluations when an athlete is hurt. Solomon says he reached out to both the principal and the superintendent, and that officials told him they were taking the reported threats against his son seriously. The school’s statement and the family’s account were reported by CBS Chicago.
What Indiana law requires
Indiana law and state guidance require schools to pull any student who is suspected of having a concussion from athletic activity and to keep that student out until a licensed health care provider gives written clearance to return. Schools are required to give parents information on concussions and are encouraged to set up return-to-play and return-to-learn plans so students ease back into sports and academics instead of jumping in all at once.
Coaches must complete concussion-awareness training, and athletic groups recommend that injured players be checked right away by an athletic trainer or medical professional, followed by a gradual, stepwise return to competition, according to the IHSAA.
Legal implications and next steps
The Solomon family says Malakai is still showing concussion symptoms, remains out of school and that they are preparing a lawsuit. Legal observers note that Indiana’s concussion statute formalizes when athletes must be removed and how they can return, but it does not automatically resolve who is liable if something goes wrong; those cases usually hinge on whether coaches or administrators followed the rules and whether they were negligent.
An analysis by Indiana Lawyer points out that the law backs up removal decisions and outlines best practices, while still leaving questions about civil exposure to be fought out case by case.
