The plaintiff in the lawsuit against Kingfisher Public Schools and current and former football coaches is demanding a $5 million settlement within two weeks as well as the firing of the head coach.

If that time frame expires, the demand doubles to $10 million.

And if that demand is not met, the attorney says the case will proceed to trial “where we fully expect a jury to award a verdict well into eight figures.”

Those settlement demands and claims were part of a 13page letter emailed and dated Wednesday, April 26, to KPS Superintendent David Glover and members of the Kingfisher Board of Education by Ross Leonoudakis of Nix Patterson LLP.

The Oklahoma City firm is co-counsel for the plaintiff in the case along with Cameron Spradling, who shared the letter on social media Wednesday.

The attorneys represent John Doe No. 1, who filed suit against the district, head football coach Jeff Myers, assistant Derek Patterson and former assistants Blake Eaton and Micah Nall.

Board of education members, Glover and the school district’s attorneys will discuss the settlement demands in executive session of Monday night’s regular board meeting.

An agenda item for the meeting calls for “discussion, consideration and vote to approve, disapprove, or respond to any settlement demands…” The lawsuit was filed in July 2021 in Kingfisher County District Court, but has been moved to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Doe, a 2021 Kingfisher High School graduate, alleged mental, physical and sexual abuse suffered as a member of the KHS football program from 2017-20.

In a motion filed in mid-April, the plaintiff’s attorney requested the relevant time frame for the case be extended to 2008. The attorney claims evidence of abuse within the program either by, or witnessed and promoted by, coaches dating back to that year.

In Wednesday’s letter, the attorney says “such conduct has gone on for years, and prior administrations have helped cover it up.”

The attorney says the board of education “has failed to live up to its duties for years.”

The reasoning, he said, is “because, at KPS, winning high school football games is what mattered the most.”

The letter lists a number of alleged incidents that were included in the motion to compel filed on April 17.

It also references a settlement offer made by the plaintiff to the district in March 2022.

That offer of $1.5 million was rejected by the board of education in a unanimous vote at a special meeting after an executive session of just over two hours and 15 minutes. Included in that executive session were the school district’s attorneys John Priddy and Brian Kuester of Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold, a firm out of Tulsa.

The recent letter termed that an “ill-advised decision.”

The letter also makes reference to the school district’s financial condition.

“Since this case was filed, KPS has touted how much extra money it has and has unabashedly spent millions of it on Coach Myers’s (sic) football program.”

The letter references a Feb. 13, 2022, article in the Times & Free Press entitled “A Good Problem to Have” in which the board of educa tion and then-Superintendent Dr. Daniel Craig discussed the district’s surplus of funds and the laundry list of needs within the district for which to use it. Craig noted, as of that meeting, there was $10.1 million in the general fund and nearly $1.8 in the building fund. Among the items discussed at that board meeting were renovations to Gilmour Elementary School, renovations to the concession stand and restrooms at the football field, a locker room facility that will serve the soccer teams and coaches as well as junior high football players and an expansion to the district’s ag barn. The attorney also noted the board’s recent decision to green-light a $1.7 million project that will provide artificial turf at the football/ soccer field as well as the high school’s softball field. “As more and more evidence comes to light about the bullying, hazing, and abuse suffered at the hands of Coach Myers, KPS’s (sic) response is to continue to deny the problem and reward Myers with nicer facilities.” The letter goes on to list a number of Oklahoma cases in which large awards were recovered for the firm’s clients. None of them listed were against school districts.

After that, the letter lists the latest settlement offers.

“We have included these examples of past results because it is important that you understand the seriousness of the situation at hand.

“With that in mind, Plaintiff hereby makes the following demand.

“(A) Plaintiff will agree to settle this lawsuit and release all of his claims against all Defendants on the following conditions: “• KPS must fire Jeff Myers; and “• KPS must agree to pay Plaintiff $5,000,000.

“This offer will expire 14 days from the date of this letter, after which time it is automatically withdrawn forever.

“(B) If you allow the above demand to expire, Plaintiff’s demand will increase to the following: “• KPS must fire Jeff Myers; and “• KPS must agree to pay Plaintiff $10,000,000.”

It says the increased offer will expire either on the day the plaintiff withdraws it or on the date “the court rules on any motions for summary judgment or, if there are no such motions filed, on the deadline to file such motions.”

If neither of those demands are met, the letter states the attorneys will take the case to trial.

“The jury pool in this case will not be limited strictly to citizens of the Kingfisher community,” the lawyer says. “The jurors will not know Jeff Myers to be some kind of god; they will see him for the predator he is.”

After stating the lawyer expects a jury to award a large verdict, it warns board members and Glover of a possible necessity to raise taxes to pay for it.

Leonoudakis references a May 1, 2022, article in the Times & Free Press entitled “KPS footing legal tab for federal lawsuit.”

The article laid out a timeline in which insurance coverage lapsed as the district swapped carriers from Oklahoma Schools Risk Management Trust (OSRMT) to Oklahoma Schools Insurance Group (OSIG).

The article also states that even if there hadn’t been a lapse in the coverage, “the previous insurance carrier and the district’s attorneys had both concluded the lawsuit’s claims would have been beyond the scope of the former policy, even if it had still been in place when the suit was filed.”

The letter quotes Article X, Section 28 of the state’s constitution, which lists the ways in which revenues for sinking funds can be applied.

Included is “payments of such parts of judgments as such municipality may, by law, be required to pay.”

“…KPS will have only one choice to pay for its wrongdoing – raise taxes,” the letter said.

Kingfisher’s board meets at 7 p.m. at the Board of Education Office.

Ahead of the meeting, Glover declined to comment to the Times & Free Press on anything regarding the case on advice of the district’s attorneys.