A 20-year-old Moorings woman and her parents last week filed a federal lawsuit alleging she was the victim of “systemic” gender discrimination when she was wrongly dismissed from the Vero Beach High School girls soccer team in February 2019.
Gabrielle D’Elia, a former student now attending New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, claims in a 49-page filing that she endured retaliation and harassment from school officials, and suffered “severe psychological and emotional damage” – including depression, anxiety and panic attacks – as a result of the treatment she received.
D’Elia’s parents, Anthony and Megan, are also listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit on behalf of their 17-year-old daughter, Delaney, who was a freshman on the team but, along with her older sister, was not permitted to participate in the team’s end-of-season banquet.
In addition, the two D’Elia girls were scheduled to be featured in a story for the school’s yearbook, but their interviews were canceled without explanation – a move the lawsuit describes as “retaliation” and “bullying.”
The lawsuit accuses school officials of violating Title IX protections from gender-based discrimination and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, as well as alleging negligence and gross negligence, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract.
The lawsuit also cites the school district’s liability for allowing bullying, harassment and discrimination on its premises.
Named as defendants are the Indian River County School Board, Schools Superintendent David Moore, Vero Beach High School and Principal Shawn O’Keefe, Vice Principal Greg Ahrens, Athletic Director Lenny Jankowski and girls soccer coach Dan Dickens.
The lawsuit states the D’Elias are seeking more than $75,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, as well as reimbursement for past and future medical expenses and attorney’s costs and fees.
However, the family’s Miami-based attorney, Jasmine Rand, said the amounts listed should not be construed as a demand or representative of the case’s value. They are required merely to establish jurisdiction in U.S. District Court.
“We do not have an economic evaluation at this time,” Rand said. “We are focused on getting justice for the girls, and we will hire an expert to make an economic determination.”
Moore said the school district does not comment on pending litigation.
The incident that prompted the lawsuit occurred Feb. 12, 2019, when the Vero Beach girls soccer team was closing out a rousing, 3-1 victory over perennial championship contender Boca Raton at the Citrus Bowl – a playoff triumph that sent the Fighting Indians to the state semifinals.
According to interviews, statements and records, Dickens replaced D’Elia with a substitute player with three minutes remaining in the game, prompting D’Elia to ask, “Why are you taking me off the field?”
“You’re not listening to me,” Dickens replied.
D’Elia had played the entire game to that point and was upset that she wasn’t allowed to finish off the home finale of her high school career. She fired back at Dickens, “Coach, I haven’t listened to you all game and we are winning.”
Dickens snapped: “Turn in your jersey. You’re off the team.”
D’Elia was sobbing uncontrollably when she told her parents what had occurred – a revelation that prompted her father to return to the field, where he confronted Dickens and angrily swatted a cellphone out of his hand.
Hours later, D’Elia’s father sent Dickens an email apologizing for his outburst, explaining that his daughter felt demoralized by the coach, who often yelled at her during games. The coach wasn’t satisfied, insisting the father be arrested for battery – a charge on which the elder D’Elia was sentenced to six months’ probation without adjudication of guilt.
The following morning, D’Elia went to see Dickens and apologized for her remark, hoping she would be allowed to play in the semifinal. The coach, though, refused to talk to her, saying only that she would be contacted by school administrators.
A day later, D’Elia was summoned to a meeting with Jankowski and Ahrens. They told her she would not be reinstated.
The lawsuit states that, prior to the Feb. 12 incident, D’Elia “had never been reprimanded, written up, punished or disciplined at any time during her four-year soccer career” at the school.
During the incident, the suit continues, D’Elia “did not use curse words, inappropriate language, harsh words, or threats of any kind; she simply made a firm statement of opinion.”
Yet she was not afforded an opportunity to offer her version of the events leading to her dismissal, which the lawsuit states denied her the due process required by the School Board’s Code of Student Conduct Handbook.
“The handbook required a minimal amount of discipline,” the lawsuit states, “based on the facts of the incident.”
Potentially more problematic for the school district: The lawsuit claims D’Elia was punished more harshly for questioning a coach’s decision than male athletes whose conduct was more egregious.
“The disparate treatment of male and female athletes at [Vero Beach High School] is blatant,” the lawsuit states, adding that football players “often go on expletive-laced, explosive tirades” that “routinely go unpunished” by coaches.
In fact, Rand said she delayed filing the lawsuit for more than a year to investigate allegations of gender discrimination in the school’s athletic department.
Rand said the investigation, which involved interviewing witnesses and gathering documents, was prolonged because the school district was slow to respond to her public records requests.
The lawsuit cites past examples of football, boys basketball and boys soccer players verbally assaulting their coaches without being removed from their teams.
“Our investigation revealed that Vero Beach High School has two rule books – one for the boys and one for the girls,” said Rand, a nationally recognized civil rights lawyer who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, both of whom were shot dead in headline-grabbing incidents.
“Gabrielle voiced her opinion to a male coach one time and was removed from her soccer team,” she added. “In stark contrast, male athletes regularly cuss coaches out and are not removed from their teams.”
The lawsuit also alleges – citing only “information and belief” – that Jankowski had directed a guidance counselor to change the grades of football players, warned athletes of upcoming random drug tests and failed to test “specific athletes who are known to use drugs but are high performers.”
Rand also devotes 1 ½ pages of the lawsuit to “Sexual Misconduct/Sexual Harassment by Male Employees Against Female Employees and Female Students” at Vero Beach High School.
In a news release announcing the lawsuit, Rand wrote that her investigation in the D’Elia case revealed that male administrators, coaches and assistant coaches have been the subject of both administrative and criminal investigations, gender-discrimination complaints and “allegations of sexual misconduct against minor female students and female administrators.”
None of the men have been punished for their actions and remain employed, she added.
“Sex/gender discrimination at [Vero Beach High School] is severe, pervasive and hostile, and is rubber-stamped and ratified by its administrators,” the lawsuit states.
That’s why, D’Elia’s mother said, the family is taking the school district to court.
“Our daughters are filing a lawsuit to stand up for themselves,” Megan D’Elia said, “and for the other girls too afraid to stand up to their abusers.”
