The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-25)

MONDAY, APRIL 25 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU B5

BY CHRISTINE CONDON

baltimore — The city’s spending
board voted Wednesday t o ap-
prove a $345,000 settlement pay-
ment to the family of high school
football player Elijah Gorham,
who died about a month after
suffering a traumatic brain injury
during a game in September.
In the settlement agreement
with Gorham’s family, city schools
vowed to hire athletic trainers at
every high school that offers in-
terscholastic athletics by the
2024-2025 school year, to collabo-
rate with the city fire department
to enhance emergency response
times at school athletic events,
and to expand emergency re-
sponse training for coaches, vol-
unteers and students.
“It makes me feel happy to
know that the young men — going
forward — that love the sport will
be protected. To know that they’ll
be safe,” said Gorham’s mother,
Shantres Shaw.
Shaw said the majority of her
proceeds from the settlement will
go toward the foundation she’s
establishing in her son’s honor,
called the 7STRONG Foundation.
The group hopes to purchase new
equipment for youth football
players, she said, and host a 7-on-7
flag football tournament focused
on educating young student-
athletes about health and safety.
“Playing sports, to me, is very
meaningful because it also keeps
them encouraged and makes
them joyful. And knowing that
they have new equipment also
keeps them safe, so they don’t
have to worry about if it’s secure,”

Shaw said.

In a statement, John MacLel-

lan, the attorney representing

Gorham’s father, wrote: “Mr. Gor-

ham continues to cope with the

death of his son. Elijah will be

forever missed and loved.”

The city wanted to agree to a

settlement “to avoid the expense,

time, and uncertainties of pro-

tracted litigation,” according to a

memo from City Solicitor Jim

Shea. The settlement with the

family does not constitute an ad-

mission of liability.

Under Maryland tort claims

law, local governments generally

can’t be held liable to any one

person for more than $400,000

for injuries arising from a single

incident, although government

officials can negotiate higher pay-

ments.

In a statement, Baltimore City

Public Schools spokesman André

Riley wrote that the settlement

agreement will “honor [Gor-

ham’s] memory while building

upon changes to safety training

and procedures currently under-

way in the school district.”

“The tragic passing of Elijah

Gorham in October 2021 is a loss

still felt by his family, the Mergen-

thaler Vocational-Technical High

School community, and Balti-

more City Public Schools,” the

statement read. “His irreplace-

able spirit and character are cher-

ished by his family and inspire all

who knew him.”

During Wednesday’s Board of

Estimates meeting, Baltimore

Mayor Brandon Scott, himself a

MERVO High School graduate,

said the settlement “is a way to

honor a young man’s legacy — a

young man who was full of en-

ergy. A young man who was full of

promise.”

He added that the city is “work-

ing with his family to implement

the things that you’re hearing,

changes that are already under-

way in Baltimore City Schools, to

make sure that this doesn’t hap-

pen again to another student.”

Gorham was injured during a

Sept. 18 game against Paul Lau-

rence Dunbar High School at Bal-

timore Polytechnic Institute.

“During what appeared to be a

routine and clean play in the end

zone, Elijah and the defender

from Dunbar both ran at full

speed to catch a pass from the

MERVO quarterback,” read

Shea’s memo about the case.

“Both athletes leapt for the foot-

ball, and Elijah, unable to break

his fall with his hands, was driven

into the ground face-first by the

momentum of the play, with the

defender landing on top of him.”

Gorham didn’t get up immedi-

ately, but after “some time on the

ground,” he rose and headed for

the sideline, Shea wrote.

“Shortly thereafter, he col-

lapsed and began seizing near the

10-yard line marker, until he be-

came unconscious,” Shea wrote.

He was down along the sideline

for a total of nearly 45 minutes

after the injury, attended to by

city schools personnel, before he

was transported by ambulance to

the University of Maryland Shock

Trauma Center for brain surgery.

His parents have expressed

concern about the length of time

he was cared for on the field

before his evacuation.

Douglas Phillips, the attorney

representing Shaw, said those

caring for Elijah on the sideline

that warm September day initial-

ly might have misidentified his

condition as heatstroke.

“In the heat of the moment, you

could be really stressed out, and

one person says: ‘I think it’s this. I

think this is the problem. We need

to cut his clothes off and put ice on

him,’ ” Phillips said.

Through the settlement agree-

ment, the family wants to ensure

all coaches — not simply head

coaches but also assistant and

volunteer coaches — receive

training for emergencies that

goes beyond clicking through a

webinar, Phillips said.

After Gorham’s death, a school

system spokesman said that an

on-site medic provided the initial

response to the young man’s inju-

ry, while other staff members con-

tacted first responders. The city

contracts vendor CDK III Sports

& First Aid to assign medics to

athletic contests as needed, a city

schools spokesman said.

City 911 records show that an

ambulance arrived about eight

minutes after a call came in from

an off-duty EMT at the game.

After 20 minutes on-site, the am-

bulance left for the hospital, the

records show.

That 20-minute time frame

“was likely the time taken by

EMTs to provide care and prepare

the student for transport,” the city

schools spokesman said at the

time.

Phillips said the family took

issue with the response time. In

the settlement, the s chool system

promised to collaborate with the

city fire department, contractual

ambulance providers and area

hospital systems “with the goal of

providing adequate ambulance

response times and reliability for

emergencies” at sports events on

city schools property.

A bill — named for Elijah Gor-

ham — passed during this year’s

General Assembly session will re-

quire all middle and high schools

in Maryland offering athletics to

develop and rehearse venue-spe-

cific emergency plans at the be-

ginning of the season for each

sport. Gov. Larry Hogan (R)

signed the bill into law Thursday.

Per the settlement agreement

with Gorham’s family, the city

also will “create funded job posi-

tions and/or contractual arrange-

ments for high school athletic

trainers” beginning in the 2022-

2023 school year and expanding

to include all high school athletic

programs by the 2024-2025

school year.

The athletic trainers will not

replace the medics, Riley said, but

add to the care provided by city

schools staff for student-athletes.

The school system had been

working on getting trainers be-

fore the settlement, including for

the past several years, he added.

The school system also plans to

hire someone for its Interscholas-

tic Athletics Office who would

oversee athletic health and safety

initiatives across the district and

support the school-based athletic

trainers.

The school system also pledged

in the settlement that it is “en-

hancing its health and safety

training, through a hybrid of in-

person and on-line curriculum.”

All head coaches, assistant

coaches and volunteer coaches

will be required to complete the

training, which will include top-

ics such as concussion protocols,

heat stroke awareness, and trau-

matic brain injury prevention,

recognition and responses.

Per the agreement, the school

system also will develop require-

ments for each high school athlet-

ic program to offer annual train-

ing sessions for students.

The school system pledged to

update Gorham’s parents on its

progress every six months

through the beginning of the

2025-2026 school year and allow

them to participate in staff and

student training sessions.

“I should note that these initia-

tives and these ideas benefited

greatly from the parents’ input as

part of the process,” said Josh

Civin, chief legal officer for Balti-

more City Public Schoos.

— Baltimore Sun

MARYLAND

Baltimore agrees to $345,000 settlement in death of h igh school athlete

“It makes me feel happy

to know that the young

men — going forward —

that love the sport will

be protected.”

Shantres Shaw,

Elijah Gorham’s mother

aid t hey asked if they themselves

could help volunteer to pack on

their days off.”

Steliac made his way up a path

where parishioners had lined up

with their baskets, waiting for a

blessing, the faint smell of in-

cense wafting in the air. “Christ is

risen,” he said, in Ukrainian and

English, and people replied, “He

is truly risen.”

After the service, families sat

down for picnics under dappled

sunlight and children in tradi-

tional embroidered shirts played

on a swing beside a pond. But

even here, the sting of death was

close by.

“Last Sunday and Monday, two

of our young volunteers who

came to help, they lost their

fathers in Ukraine,” said Steliac,

who also is an Air Force chaplain.

“So we might be in Washington,

but we are directly impacted as a

parish community by the war.

This war has no boundaries.”

tect themselves. “I feel like the

Russian government is afraid to

see Ukrainians succeed, because

then the Russians will start

scratching their head and say,

‘Well, why can’t we live like

that?’ ”

When the war began, the

church began collecting and

packing donations including

nonperishable food and baby

items for Ukraine. The effort has

continued, 12 hours a day, six days

a week, said Tamara Woroby, the

parish council president. The

church has shipped 200 tons of

humanitarian supplies, she said,

adding that next week it is send-

ing $6 million worth of medical

supplies.

“The Amazon truck arrives al-

most every 15 minutes making

deliveries,” she said. “A few weeks

ago two of the Amazon drivers

wondered why they were coming

so often, and once they found out

it was packing for humanitarian

opted for the Ukrainian service.

Vadim Zhitnikov, 38, is from

Perm, Russia, and exemplifies the

complicated ties many people

have between the two countries.

“This is my first time being here,

because I felt compelled to show

my support,” said Zhitnikov, a

nurse who lives in Virginia. “I

have extended family in Russia

and I have extended family in

Ukraine.”

Zhitnikov said he has posted

statements about the war on Rus-

sian social media for which

“they’ll arrest me if I go back and

step off a plane.” Of family mem-

bers in Russia, he said, “They’re

totally brainwashed. I say to my

aunt, ‘Should I trust what you’re

saying or my family in Ukraine

who’s going through it?’ and she

doesn’t want to hear that. She

ended the conversation.”

Some friends in Russia have

thanked him for his posts, even as

they quickly delete them to pro-

“Even today people are dying,

there is bombing. It is really hard

to be separate from the family,

every day calling to see if they are

alive.”

Orthodox Christianity is the

dominant religion in both

Ukraine and Russia, but the

Ukrainian Orthodox Church split

from its Russian counterpart

three years ago after more than

300 years of being linked. Rus-

sian Patriarch Kirill has support-

ed the assertion by Russian Presi-

dent Vladimir Putin that Ukraine

is an inseparable part of the

greater Russian world, alienating

some Orthodox believers.

The gathering was larger this

year than is typical, church offi-

cials and parishioners said.

“Some Ukrainians who would

normally go to Russian church.

Today they came here because

they didn’t want to go to church

in Russian,” Gorokhivska said.

There were also Russians who

plate.’ ”

Even many of those still in

their homes were dissuaded from

attending the celebration so inte-

gral to Ukrainian Orthodox

Christians, said the Rev. Volod-

ymyr Steliac, who led the Sunday

morning service as well as a

midnight service hours earlier.

“The priests and bishops had to

discourage people from coming

to celebrate Easter because the

Russian Federation” will “take

advantage of people gathering in

one place,” he said.

Lidiaa, 68, fled K harkiv,

Ukraine, l ast month, leaving be-

hind her son and his family. She is

staying with her daughter Lana,

45, in Silver Spring.

“They cannot go to church

today because it is all the time

bombing,” said Lana, who did not

want to give her surname for fear

of reprisals against family mem-

bers in Ukraine. “They need to

shelter all the time,” she said.

stroyed and people are displaced.
That is the saddest part. They
cannot celebrate as we celebrate
here.”
Instead, parishioners de-
scribed hearing frightening re-
ports from friends and family
members in Ukraine. “My niece
left Kyiv, so they’re still alive,” said
Ludmilla Murphy, a retired econ-
omist who lives in Silver Spring.
Murphy said she fled Ukraine at
age 7, during the Second World
War. “The last picture I have is of
Kyiv burning, and now I see the
pictures of Kyiv burning.”
As for her relatives there now,
“They literally went to the Car-
pathian Mountains to wait things
out,” she said. Were they celebrat-
ing Easter? “My niece is a very
good baker, but she said, ‘We
don’t have anything, flour or
eggs, but most of all we don’t even
have an oven. We have a hot

SERVICE FROM B1

A larger gathering at St. Andrew for this Orthodox Easter

VALERIE PLESCH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Parishioners with baskets to be blessed attend the Orthodox Easter service on the lawn behind S t. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Silver Spring on Sunday.