DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (CN) - A Florida woman claims in court her son was hospitalized with kidney damage after his coach from a city-sponsored youth football team told him to guzzle laxatives to lose weight.
In a complaint filed October 16 in Broward County, Ebony Lawson claims that the coach, Darron Bostic, instructed the teenage boy to drink large quantities of magnesium citrate to rapidly shed pounds, so he could meet the weight requirements for a Deerfield Beach youth football division.
After his team's big game against a local rival in Sept. 2016, the boy, who was 15 at the time, became dehydrated from the laxative, and he was hospitalized with acute kidney injury, the mother says.
The mother's attorney, Donald Norton, alleges that the McDougle Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that oversaw the boy's team, should have known Bostic was not fit to coach. The lawsuit says the Foundation retained Bostic even though he "was known to place bets on the outcome of games played in this youth football program."
The mother seeks damages from Bostic, the Foundation as well as the City of Deerfield Beach, which sponsored the boy's team, the Deerfield Beach Bison.
The McDougle Family Foundation was founded by brothers Stockar and Jerome McDougle, retired NFL players. The foundation says on its website that it aims to provide mentoring and academic support for student athletes.
A representative of the foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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