Towson University must allow a football player to return to the team after a successful liver transplant and an “amazing recovery,” a federal judge in Maryland has ruled.
The university’s refusal to let Gavin Class rejoin the team under its “return to play” policy violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett said.
In 2013, Class collapsed from heat stroke during practice and suffered liver failure, requiring a transplant and two years of “long and arduous” rehabilitation. His physicians, who specialize in liver diseases, and independent specialists in heat stroke cleared him to play if we wears protective padding, but the team physician, who “has no expertise in liver illness or heat injury,” refused.
Class has already obtained the type of padding that some other players also use.
Bennett found that the requested accommodations to allow use of protective padding and use of a core temperature monitoring system are reasonable and said there was no proof to support the team physician’s concerns about a possible “sudden and dramatic change in Class’s condition.” Class was allowed to take part in some spring training, but the injunction entitles Class “to return to active status as a full participant in its football program.”
He also found no evidence for the concerns expressed by Towson’s athletic director about “team focus and morale arising from the accommodations requested by Class,” saying, “There is no basis to find that these ‘concerns’ would constitute an undue burden on the university.”
The decision didn’t address the issue of NCAA eligibility rulings unrelated to Class’s medical condition.
