YOUNGSTOWN — A third federal lawsuit has been filed against Ursuline High School and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown alleging misconduct against a student, this time alleging that an openly gay freshman boy was ridiculed by football players for his sexual preference and “sexual stereotyping.”

The suit also alleges that the student’s and his guardian’s requests to school officials to make the behaviors stop were ignored.

The suit, also filed by the Chandra Law firm, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court, seeking compensatory and punitive damages and a declaration that the defendants’ actions and conduct “constitute violations of federal and state law and the United States Constitution.”

This suit alleges misconduct during the 2023-2024 school year — one year earlier than earlier allegations — involving a boy who was 14 when he enrolled in Ursuline as a freshman around August 2023.

The boy, referred to in the lawsuit by the pseudonym “Grandson,” wore makeup and was “harassed, bullied and ridiculed … because he is gay and because of sexual stereotyping,” the lawsuit alleges.

One Ursuline student, referred to by initials, “was the ringleader and main perpetrator, although other players engaged in the misconduct too,” the suit states. That student is also named a defendant in the first lawsuit, which alleged the hazing of a young football player during a June 2025 trip by the football team to several Southern states.

The new lawsuit states that harassment of the boy began “almost immediately when the school year began when several football players “harassed, bullied and ridiculed Grandson.” The suit alleges that the bullying “occurred daily and throughout the school day.”

The players consistently called Grandson one of two similar slurs and “repeatedly ridiculed Grandson because he wore makeup.” They also “openly and loudly engaged in name calling and degradation in the classrooms while in the presence of teachers, in the hallways and in the cafeteria,” the suit alleges.

It states that, “On rare occasions, a teacher would tell them to ‘knock it off,’ but acted no further to protect Grandson.”

In the cafeteria, he sat with one or two friends off to the side, but “the players still walked over to Grandson’s table and persisted in the bullying and name calling … even throwing food at him,” the suit states.

“Within the first couple of weeks, as the bullying continued, Grandson went to (Ursuline administrators) and reported the player’s abuse. Grandson reported the bullying to Assistant Principal Margaret Damore, who assured Grandson that she would look into the matter,” the suit alleges. Damore is also named as a defendant in the suit.

“Despite Grandson providing the names of the football players to Damore … she did nothing, and the bullying continued,” the suit states. He also went to the Ursuline “front office staff many more times throughout the first semester and made additional reports about the players’ harassment and bullying,” the suit states.

“But the Ursuline staff gave the same response as Damore — that they would look into the matter but then nothing happened,” the suit alleges.

The suit states that sometime in 2024, an Ursuline teacher made a statement loud enough for the alleged victim to hear: “He has more makeup on than me,” the suit alleges. A second female teacher replied, “Don’t say that. It’s not cool.”

In February 2024, the boy’s grandmother picked the boy up from school and saw a red mark on his face. He told her that a football player threw food in his face, the suit states.

In March 2024, the boy and his grandmother went to a fast food restaurant where multiple Ursuline football players walked past the boy while he was sitting in the car and made jokes about him. It led the boy to tell his grandmother about bullying at school. It caused his grandmother to call the school to report the harassment. She was told the message would be given to the principal and assistant principal, but no one called back, the suit alleges.

The next day, the grandmother spoke to Damore, “who assured Grandmother she would look into the matter and contact Grandmother.” When she got no return call, she called Dan Reardon, then the head football coach, and informed him of the harassment by football players, the suit states. He offered no help, the suit adds. She went to the school and tried to speak to Principal Matthew Sammartino and Damore but without luck, the suit states.

After that, she called the office 20 times between March 19, 2024, and May 31, 2024, and got return phone calls three times, the lawsuit states, reciting information from the grandmother’s cellphone. The returned calls lasted between one and two minutes, two of them on March 22, 2024, the suit alleges, adding the calls did not stop the harassment.

Ursuline provided a statement in response to a Tribune Chronicle request for comment on the new lawsuit:

“The new complaint, which we now are reviewing, brings additional allegations that describe actions, if true, that are extremely upsetting and unacceptable. We must emphasize again that we will allow the legal process to proceed to accord proper respect and due process for all parties involved.

“As with the previous complaints, we continue to be limited in what we can share publicly given the privacy issues involved and the fact we are facing active litigation. That said, Ursuline’s administration was aware of the alleged concerns involving this student and family, and our records indicate the administration handled the alleged concerns correctly under our policies and procedures.”

It states that, “We also want to remind everyone and especially our Ursuline community that any allegations in a legal claim must be regarded as just that — unproven allegations. Legal counsel filing such complaints will often cast the allegations in sensational and melodramatic language as a tactic. That does not make them true.”

It states that, “The safety of our students is the most serious issue we face every day. Nothing is more important. While we continue to honor the legal process and the privacy of all involved, our dedication to right, to restorative justice and to healing will guide our response. Given the sensitivity of the ongoing situation and the requirements of the legal and investigative process, we cannot comment further.”

Earlier this year, on Sept. 7, less than a week after the initial lawsuit was filed, Reardon was suspended indefinitely, and assistant coaches Tim McGlynn and Christian Syrianoudis were placed on administrative leave for the rest of the season. They are the three coaches named in the first lawsuit. Ursuline later canceled its football season.

A second lawsuit alleged sexual harassment of a female Ursuline student by an Ursuline football player. And earlier this month, the initial lawsuit was expanded to include allegations brought by a second football player of hazing during a summer 2024 football trip and other allegations dating back to 2022.

A statement on the Chandra Law website Monday states that this third lawsuit “accuses school officials of a pattern of deliberate indifference to students’ well-being in favor of protecting its football players.”