A Florida school and its former track and cross-country coach are being sued by the family of a late disabled student-athlete who took her own life. The parents claim that the coach disrespected their daughter and disregarded her calls for help.

The student-athlete Julia Pernsteiner alleged that a Florida university’s track and field coach “fat shamed” and “humiliated” her a month prior to her death. In 2021, the student committed suicide in her room after being kicked off the cross-country team two months earlier.

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Her parents are suing Jacksonville University because they claim that administrators neglected her requests for intervention.

Who was Julia Pernsteiner?

Julia Pernsteiner was a 23-year-old student at Jacksonville University who died in her dorm in 2021 by suicide. This tragedy occurred only two months after she had been cut from the cross-country squad.

Her parents, Ray and Lynne Pernsteiner. are the ones who initiated the wrongful death case against JU, alleging that JU permitted Ron Grigg, the team’s coach, to humiliate the young players on the team. Persteiner was unable to join the university’s cross-country team because she had a number of learning problems that affected her ability to read, write, spell, and do math.

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According to the case filed on February 3, 2023, the university was affirmatively complicit in allowing the team’s coach, Ron Grigg, to repeatedly criticize their daughter’s academic shortcomings and frequently refer to her as “retarded” in front of the team. “Teammates recall Grigg taking a special satisfaction in humiliating Julia, referring to her as ‘retarded,’ the slowest f—— runner on the team’ and unable to ‘wipe your own a–,” the suit claims.

The institution was accused of failing to provide an academic culture that was accommodating of their daughter’s impairment despite promising to do so when they recruited her for the cross-country team.

When her grades began to suffer, Pernsteiner allegedly turned to her love for sport for comfort until she was let go from the team a month before she killed herself.

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Pernsteiner sent an email to Alex Ricker-Gilbert, the university’s sports director, a month after she was dismissed from the team, expressing her heartfelt feelings. “I just don’t know where to go from here,” the email says. “I rely on the athletic academic help to do well. I would like to stay and work on improving my grades. I just am not able to do it myself. I’m looking for advice on how to proceed.”

Her emotions spiraled into frustration and depression after receiving no response to her email. After a month, Pernsteiner committed suicide.