Kingfisher’s board of education held a special meeting Wednesday in conjunction with a court-ordered settlement conference in the civil lawsuit filed by a former student and football player.

The conference lasted about six hours at the United States District Courthouse in Oklahoma City.

All parties were present for the conference before Suzanne Mitchell, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, including the plaintiff, Mason Mecklenburg.

A 2021 Kingfisher High School graduate, Mecklenburg filed the lawsuit against Kingfisher Public Schools in 2021.

He alleged a culture of bullying, hazing and torture during his time in the football program, citing a number of alleged incidents throughout his four years in the program in the court filings.

Also named in the suit were current and former football coaches, including head coach Jeff Myers, who was also present for the conference.

Named in the lawsuit along with Myers were current assistant Derek Patterson and former assistants Blake Eaton and Micah Nall, all of whom were present.

According to a filing in the case, Bradley E. Beckworth of Nix Patterson LLP appeared as trial counsel for Mecklenburg.

Eric D. Janzen of Rosenstein, Fist & Ringold was there as counsel for KPS, Patterson and Eaton.

Joe E. White of White & Weddle represented Myers and Mark S. Rains of Cheek Law Firm represented Nall.

Kingfisher school board members present were President Charles Walker, Vice President Carly Franks and Clerk Brad Wittrock.

It was requested that a majority of the five-member board be present for the conference, so the board called for the special meeting under the advice of attorneys in order to not violate the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act.

The conference was not open to the public and the parties were ordered by Mitchell to not discuss the details outside of the courtroom.

Once the conference ended, the three board members returned to open session in their own meeting, but did not take up the lone action item on the agenda, which allowed for “discussion and vote to approve or not approve the settlement.”

Superintendent David Glover, who was also at the conference, confirmed to the Times & Free Press that no settlement agreement was reached.

A document was filed in the case docket on Thursday by order of Mitchell that also stated there was no settlement.

The Kingfisher board had previously rejected a settlement offer of $1.5 million in March 2022.

Since then, the settlement demand increased to $5 million with a two-week timetable to accept before it would increase.

The last settlement offer made public by Mecklenburg’s attorneys was $10 million plus other stipulations, including Myers’ firing.

Currently the case is set for trial in December.