Bowman family sues Bigfork Schools

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

The parents of Jeffrey Bowman — the Bigfork High School student who died on August 20, 2007 following a collapse at football practice seven days earlier — have filed suit against Bigfork School District 38, BHS head football coach Bruce Corbett and then-BHS Activities Director Shannon Smith in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

The suit, seeking "actual and special damages" and a 12-member jury trial, was filed on Wednesday, August 13, by Dan Caplis on behalf of Bob and Troy Bowman.

Caplis is a high-profile lawyer from the Denver-based Caplis & Deasy firm. The Bowmans had recently moved to Bigfork from the Denver area when Jeffrey died and currently reside there.

An official cause of death was never released, but controversy swirled around Bowman, who died at Kalispell Regional Medical Center seven days after collapsing while running laps at the BHS football field. He was participating in practice despite the fact that he did not have a physical on file with the school, a violation of both district and Montana High School Association policy.

The lawsuit alleges a lack of CPR and defibrillator training for staff, negligent supervision, outrageous conduct and a deprivation of parental rights at various points against both the district and Smith and Corbett individually.

In a statement sent by Bob and Troy Bowman, they state that Bigfork High "blatantly violated our legal and sacred right to decide what's best for our child."

They also state that medical records were turned over to Bigfork Schools that indicate "that it was the football practice that caused Jeff to collapse, and that Jeff would have been saved by the use of the school's defibrillator."

After the incident, the Bigfork School District commissioned an investigation by Missoula attorney Elizabeth Kaleva that found the coaches on the field acted appropriately but the school's system for filing physicals and other permission forms was flawed. At the time, the Bowman family derided the report as an "insult" and a "charade."

BHS has since revised its procedures for handling athletic forms.

That investigation did not touch on air quality for August 13, 2007, a fact that upset the Bowmans at the time of the report's release.

The district's report indicated that head football coach Bruce Corbett and his assistant coaches took into account smoky conditions and modified practice accordingly, but did not give specific air quality information. Records from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality indicated air quality ranging from "Good" to "Moderate" on that day, with levels spiking around the time of the 8 p.m. practice, but officials with that agency did note that air quality can be highly localized and the nearest reading station is in Kalispell.

The Bowmans also allege verbal and physical abuse by the coaches in their statement, stating that a coach "even lifted him off the ground by his waistband and then intentionally dropped him."

"We know now that in the real world there are bad people out there who will jeopardize the lives of children to win games," the Bowmans state. "A big verdict in this case will send a loud and clear message which will help protect a lot of kids."

Bigfork School District Superintendent Russ Kinzer declined to comment on the case. The district is represented by Charles McNeil of the Missoula-based Garlington, Lohn, Robinson law firm.

For more on this story, please see the August 28 edition of the Bigfork Eagle.