Williamsburg, Kentucky – A Kentucky university has agreed to a settlement of more than $14 million over the death of a student wrestler after hours of practice, the school announced.
The university said Wednesday that the settlement over the death of Junior Grant Preece, 20, of Louisville, Tennessee, includes an agreement for the University of the Cumberlands to participate in a heat illness training program and to help raise awareness of heat-related injuries. in the current situation.
Citing the suit, Media reported that Bryce’s August 31, 2020 death from heatstroke after he asked for water and was refused “was tragic and entirely avoidable.”
This image is provided by University of the Cumberlands Grant Press.
University of the Cumberlands via AP
“They did it and they didn’t care,” Kyle Brace, Grant’s father, told Good Morning America. “They didn’t care.”
“In the end it killed him,” said his mother, Jackie Preece.
Brace was diagnosed with narcolepsy and ADHD and prescribed Adderall that required maintaining hydration, according to the lawsuit.
He died during the wrestling team’s first practice day of the season. After practice, the team had to run several times up and down a steep hill and Bryce completed several times before sitting up from exhaustion. The then-coach threatened to fire Bryce from the wrestling team, the lawsuit said, so he ran up the hill again and was later heard to say “I’m done. I can’t do it anymore.”
He begged for water and his condition continued to deteriorate, but the coaches did not provide water or contact the coach or emergency medical personnel, according to the suit. I got ready to go outside and tried to drink from an outdoor water fountain that didn’t work.
A screenshot from surveillance video provided to ABC News shows Grant Brace attempting to enter the locked wrestling building before his death.
Surveillance video that the family’s attorney shared with ABC News shows Bryce struggling to open a locked door to the wrestling building. About an hour later, he was found collapsed about 300 yards away, not far from a non-functioning water fountain.
About 45 minutes later, the trainers found him dead with his hands wedged in the grass and dirt, according to the suit.
“He was on all fours,” his father said, “and he dug his hands into the dirt, and he had fists of dirt.” “it is too late.”
Playing a role in the incident were a series of audio diaries left on Brace’s phone, documenting alleged abuse from the wrestling department beginning in the previous season.
He can be heard saying, “Grant blogs daily to my mom and dad, in case something bad happens to me.”
“I started to see a picture of this that wasn’t just one incident gone wrong,” said family attorney Jamie Monkos. “This was a pattern.”
The university said in a statement that it believed it could defend the asserted claims in the suit, but that the legal process would have been lengthy and expensive.
“The university has made the decision to now settle the case in a way that it hopes will honor the Brice family’s tremendous loss,” the statement said.
She said student and athlete safety is a top priority and she “welcomes the opportunity to work with a Brace Family Consultant to ensure the safest environment for student athletes in all sports.”
Brice’s parents said the settlement was not about money, but about the university’s accounting.
Em Nguyen of ABC News contributed to this report.
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