Judge asked to drop claims in lawsuit against Hocking College

NELSONVILLE — Hocking College and the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the college, its board, president and several staff members has asked that the claims filed on a former student’s behalf be dismissed.

In the case, Caden Cox alleges he was the target of disability discrimination, retaliation and assault during his time at Hocking College. It is filed in U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division.

In documents filed on April 19, Cox, and his mother, Mari Cox, along with the Hocking College Board of Trustees and President Betty Young, ask the court to “dismiss with prejudice” all of the plaintiff’s claims against Hocking College, the board, Young and Matthew Kmosko in his official capacity as a college employee.

The document asks that Cox’s claims against Kmosko as an individual remain.

In other action regarding the case, the court denied Cox’s motion for default judgement against Kmosko, who has failed to plead or otherwise respond to the complaint.

In a document filed on April 23, Magistrate Judge Kimberly A. Jolson denied the plaintiff’s request with prejudice. The plaintiff had until Monday to give the court an update on how he intends to proceed. As of press deadline, the update had not been filed.

According to the order, Cox and all of the defendants, except for Kmosko, successful participated in mediation and decided to drop all claims against the defendants in their capacity as Hocking College employees. The only remaining claims are of Kmosko’s intentional infliction of emotional distress and assault.

The order notes that because the plaintiff has not served Kmosko a summons, the court can’t award the default judgement against him.

Hocking College is being represented by the State Attorney General’s Office, Education Section. Cox is being represented by Mark Weiker and Jessica Moor of Abdnour Weiker LLP of Columbus.

According to previous Associated Press report, in the lawsuit, Cox seeks compensatory and punitive damages and wanted changes made to the community college’s anti-harassment policies.

The lawsuit alleges that when Cox worked at the school’s student recreation center, his supervisor, Kmosko, began “persistent derogatory, discriminatory, and abusive verbal harassment” that was reported to college administrators. Other student-workers there also complained about being harassed by the supervisor, according to the lawsuit.

The harassment culminated in May 2022, according to the lawsuit, with the supervisor threatening Cox with a knife in the student center bathroom. The supervisor resigned and was later convicted in municipal court on menacing charges stemming from the incident.

Cox and his parents filed a written complaint last December with Young, claiming the school failed to conduct a background check on the supervisor before he was hired and didn’t protect Cox from harassment and discrimination despite complaints he and other students made.

Young then retaliated against Cox by removing him as the recipient of two graduation awards he had been selected to receive, according to the lawsuit.

Cox garnered national attention in 2021 when he kicked an extra point for Hocking and became the first person with Down syndrome to play and score a point in an NCAA or National Junior College Athletic Association college football game.