After tragically losing their son in an accident at a football camp, the family of Joshua Mileto, the “Sachem High School East football player who died last month during a training drill” has announced that it “intends to file a lawsuit seeking $15 million in compensatory and wrongful death damages.” The claim itself was filed against the Sachem Central School District and the Sachem East Touchdown Club, the two parties that Joshua’s mother, Sayyida Lynn Ancharski-Mileto believes are directly responsible for her son’s August 10 death.
After tragically losing their son in an accident, the family of Joshua Mileto, the “Sachem High School East football player who died last month during a training drill” has announced that it “intends to file a lawsuit seeking $15 million in compensatory and wrongful death damages.” The claim itself was filed against the Sachem Central School District and the Sachem East Touchdown Club, the two parties that Joshua’s mother, Sayyida Lynn Ancharski-Mileto believes are directly responsible for her son’s August 10 death.
According to the claim, Ancharski-Mileto said the school district and football club’s “negligence and carelessness” were the reason behind the accident that claimed her son’s life. But what happened? Well, the accident took place at a summer football camp run by the “Sachem East coaches and funded by a boosters group, the Sachem East Touchdown Club.” During a football training drill, Joshua and four other players were tasked with carrying a 400-pound log over their heads. However, during the team building activity, the log “slipped from their hands and struck” Joshua on the head.
As described in the notice of claim, Joshua was severely injured when the log fell. In fact, upon becoming unstable and falling, the heavy log crushed the boy’s “neck and other parts of his body.” He passed away as a “direct result of such injuries.”
Ancharski-Mileto and other members of Joshua’s family claim the players weren’t “properly instructed on how to conduct the drill, and that officials failed to supervise the activity and provide proper medical care after Mileto was injured.” Because of this, the family is seeking $7.5 million in “compensatory damages and $7.5 million in wrongful death damages.”
In a statement regarding the matter, Jay W. Dankner, “senior partner of Dankner Milstein P.C.,” the firm representing the Mileto family, said the following:
“This unsupervised and improperly conducted conditioning drill should never have been part of the training of these young boys. There was no thought or consideration as to what could, and unfortunately did, happen if the boys lost control of the log or it was dropped for any reason.”
How has the Sachem Central School District and the Sachem East Touchdown Club responded to the family’s claims? Unsurprisingly, so far representatives of the booster club “have not responded to requests for comment,” and while a spokeswoman for the school district “confirmed it had received the claim of notice Wednesday,” she didn’t issue a comment.
For now, no one has been charged in Joshua’s death. A police investigation concluded that criminal charges aren’t warranted, and Justin Meyers, the Assistant Commissioner, said:
“The death of Joshua Mileto has been ruled by Suffolk County homicide investigators as noncriminal.”
Sources:
Sachem East football player’s family intends $15M suit over death
Parents of teen football player who died during practice file suit against school district
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