Family Of Teen Who Took Own Life Taking Pritzker, IHSA To Court

LASALLE COUNTY, IL — The family of a high school athlete who took his own life in October is suing Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois High School Association over the state's youth sports restrictions.

Eighteen-year-old Trevor Till, of Mazon, died on Oct. 20, after being socially isolated for months due to the pandemic, his mother Lisa Moore told Patch.

"He thrived on being busy," she said. "He thrived on his relationships at school. He was a kid that needed other kids."

A little more than a month after Trevor's death, Moore shared his story to the Illinois High School Sports Central Facebook page. She said that prior to the pandemic, Trevor had been class president, National Honor Society president, drum major and heavily involved in band, chorus and other school clubs. In March, just before Pritzker issued the state's first stay-at-home order, Trevor even played the lead in his school's fall musical, "The Music Man."

After the pandemic struck, however, "Trevor was never the same," Moore wrote. "He was so sad he didn't have his senior year track season. ... No prom was a huge blow too. Trevor missed the interaction with his friends and educators! Zoom is not enough!"

That post caught the attention of Remember America Action, a conservative group that touts itself as being "at the forefront of helping businesses and individuals fight COVID-19 restrictions on fundamental constitutional liberties."

"President Trump is right — keeping the economy shutdown is UNHEALTHY for our country," the group writes online. "These shutdowns are destroying our lives."

The group's attorney, Laura Grochocki, filed suit Monday in LaSalle County Circuit Court.

Moore told Patch her son had gone to state pole-vaulting championships his sophomore year and missed going his junior year by just 3 inches. He dreamed of returning to the state championship his senior year, but when that became impossible, "Trevor was devastated."

According to the suit, that was the "final blow" that led to Trevor's death, "a proximate cause of which was the [sic] Governor Pritzker's restrictions on high school sports programs."

In July, the governor imposed restrictions on youth sports based on the amount of contact between athletes during play, and the IHSA quickly rescheduled seasons for some high risk sports — such as football — from fall 2020 to spring 2021. Lower-risk sports that were set to start this winter were canceled as the virus began to spike in Illinois in late November, with IHSA executive director Craig Anderson saying earlier this month that the association now has "no expectations of starting low-risk winter sports" before 2021.

Unlike prior unsuccessful suits, this one doesn't directly challenge the governor's power to impose public health restrictions on schools and businesses, but rather argues that he has done so arbitrarily and unfairly.

"There is no rational or reasonable basis to prohibit certain high school sports while at the same time allowing the same sports to be played by college and professional athletes," the suit claims, calling the governor's actions and the IHSA's cancellation of the winter sports season "an arbitrary and invidious discrimination against the parents of children attending high school in Illinois."

According to the Moore's attorneys, this is the only suit filed against Pritzker's executive actions so far on the basis of equal protection under the Illinois Constitution.

The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment on the suit. But the governor, at his daily news conference Wednesday, fielded a question on why professional and youth sports are treated differently by the state.

"Professional sports and college sports have significant resources for protecting their players," Pritzker said, "for creating social distance, for example, by having multiple locker rooms, by making sure that they've got plexiglass everywhere that they need to separate the players, to test them on a much more regular basis — a much more regular basis than an individual high school or a district could afford."

A spokesperson for the Illinois High School Association declined to comment on the suit.

Trevor started college at the University of Illinois this fall, "but it wasn't the college experience he had hoped for," Moore told Patch. For one, he had planned to head to campus early for marching band, but the pandemic prevented that from happening.

"So, in fact, he lost all his music, too, which was such a big part of his life," Moore said. "Then he moved into his dorm, and his roommate was supposed to be from India, and he obviously didn't come, so he was in a room by himself.

"He wasn't really comfortable with that," Moore continued. "He tried to talk to the RA, but there supposedly was nothing that could be done. In hindsight, I sure wish I had pushed for him to get into a room with someone else. Without a roommate, with COVID and nothing going on on campus, and him sitting there hour after hour by himself, it just breaks my heart."

Trevor joined some campus clubs, but they were virtual and didn't fill the gap in his life, his mother said. He had planned to see a counselor, but his mother doesn't know if he ever did — school officials won't tell her.

"I knew he was sad, but I didn't know how sad he was," Moore said.

She wishes the school had done more to ensure her son and other students were OK.

"They say there's all this stuff they're doing, but it's not like they say on TV at all," she said. "I'm so sorry I sent my son there. He would be here. They should have been knocking on doors, doing more wellness checks, just something to check on these kids' well-being. Especially since he didn't have a roommate.

"The effect on all these kids' psyches — we haven't even begun to feel the long-term effects on all these kids," she said.

Moore was the last person to talk to Trevor on Sunday night. "He didn't check out of his dorm again until somebody found him on Wednesday," she said, fighting through tears. "Nobody even checked on him. It's disgusting."

The university didn't immediately return a request for comment.

"So, now we all go on," Moore said. "Me, his father and his four siblings. The guilt and the heartbreak is something I wouldn't wish on anybody. It's horrible. It's just horrible. The boy could have done anything."

She hopes the lawsuit will draw attention to others who may be in Trevor's situation.

"I think we're hurting these kids mentally more than we're protecting them from COVID," Moore said. "I honestly believe my son would be here if there was no COVID or if COVID was handled differently. I know he would be here today had he finished a normal senior year and had he had a normal college situation."

"I miss him so much," she added.

Several other Illinois parents are also named as plaintiffs in Remember America Action's suit:

• Mandy Worker, of Fayette County, Illinois, whose children Miley and Tiler Worker are "struggling with the depression and stress" of "missing out on their senior year high school sports and education";
• Jill Pearson Layne, of Schuyler County, Illinois, whose son Jonah Layne "had an emotional meltdown and was sent home to learn virtually" because he was prevented from playing football;
• Kate Benton, of Downers Grove, Illinois, whose children Brian and Molly Benton "have lost the opportunity for college scholarships" because they could not be seen by college recruiters and have "suffered socially with no contact with peers;" and
• Christine Simmons, of LaSalle County, Illinois, whose son Tristan Simmons "used to be happy, but after the Governor's COVID-19 restrictions on high school sports he has become angry and depressed" and no longer qualifies for a college wrestling scholarship.

Read the full complaint here:

Grochocki, who filed the suit on behalf of Moore and the others, said the named plaintiffs "represent thousands of students who, as a result of the state's COVID-19 restrictions, have developed anxiety disorders" or been "hospitalized for mental and emotional breakdowns," plus "thousands of rural, minority and low-income students [who] have lost the opportunity for college scholarships because they weren't scouted for football, basketball, hockey, and other sports."

"The people of Illinois must hold public officials like Gov. Pritzker [sic] for the terrible harm they've caused through these discriminatory COVID-19 laws that favor powerful elites over our kids," she said in a statement. "We must end this discrimination before there are any more suicides like Trevor Till's."

The suit asks the court to declare the cancellation of high school sports unconstitutional, bar the governor and high school association from enforcing it, and award to the plaintiffs attorneys' fees, court costs, and any further relief the court deems just.

Anyone struggling with mental health can get help by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, visiting this website or by texting HOME to 741741. Find more information about the warning signs of suicide and how to help a loved one here.