A few weeks back, we broke the story of Chase Johanson, the former Medina High School basketball player who sued his former coach, athletic director, principal and school district in federal court after he was cut from the team, allegedly because of some tweets he sent out after riding the pine during some mid-season games. Ironically, Johanson dropped the suit last week because of "community reaction on social media," reported Nick Glunt of the Medina-Gazette this weekend.
From Glunt's story "Athlete: Lawsuit dropped over backlash on social media":
In a statement from Johanson released by his attorney, Steve Bailey, the Medina High graduate said he was dropping the lawsuit because he was concerned with negative criticism he received from community members.“Frankly, the media attention this matter garnered, and the sometimes vicious and personal public response through social media was more than I wanted my parents to endure,” Johanson said. “The stress has adversely affected my mother’s health, which is more important to me even than the principle raised in my lawsuit.”
Essentially, the person who filed a federal lawsuit against his former coach, athletic director, principal and school district and asked for $75,000 in damages because he sat on the bench before getting cut dropped the suit because other people were acting irrationally.
Here's hoping all former high school athletes from around the country can learn a valuable lesson from this case: if you feel you didn't get enough playing time or the coach had the audacity to cut you from the team, just silently hold a healthy grudge for the rest of your life like the rest of us and you won't have to deal with ridicule from assholes on Twitter when your lawsuit becomes public (or just set your Twitter account to private).
