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).
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.
As a Medina resident, I am elated to see Chase dropped his lawsuit and even more excited to know that our community gave this troll the hell he and his family deserved. I can’t wait to see what his mommy will post on here this time around.
Thanks, mikeh, for showing the kind of class Medina should be recognized for. You’re an honorable man, Brutus.
I am pretty bad at hoops also, maybe I should file a law suit.
so he dropped the lawsuit because his mom didn’t have the stomach for the situation, not because he realized he was a moron?
still a pussy
wow now i know how kids become bullies. they learn from their parents..
It’s really sad how delusional people can be. Everyone thinks that they’re going to be the next huge professional ballplayer, and the big bad coach, or umpire, or referee, or school policy is the ONE THING standing in their way trying to crush their guaranteed success. Honestly, open your eyes and realize that if you were talented at all in a noteworthy way, you’d be playing and wouldn’t have these “obstacles” in your way. Just being honest with yourself is such an amazing thing that no one seems able to do anymore.
Oh, and kudos to this kid for one last time having the chance to man up and instead passing the blame onto his mom. He could have said, you know what, I was wrong to do this, I’m sorry, and I’m dropping the lawsuit. But no, instead he essentially says his lawsuit is justified and he still believes in it, but just because of his mother’s health he’s going to drop it. I’m so glad to hear that he’s learned absolutely nothing from this experience. Hopefully, in the future, when he gets a B+ in college, mommy and daddy can ride in and sue the school to hopefully get him bumped up to that A- he didn’t earn but feels entitled to anyways.