Meyer’s family is suing Stanford over her death
Katie Meyer’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Stanford, saying the 21-year-old soccer goalie was distressed about facing discipline over an incident from August 2021.
Meyer, a former standout at Newbury Park High in Ventura County, took her own life in late February. The civil lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Santa Clara County Superior Court. USA Today obtained the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says Meyer spilled coffee on a Stanford football player who allegedly had sexually assaulted a soccer teammate. It also said that Meyer received a formal written notice on the evening of Feb. 28 — the same night she died — that charged her with a “Violation of the Fundamental Standard.”
The violation put her diploma on hold a few months before she was supposed to graduate, USA Today reported.
Her parents argue in the lawsuit that the notice came “after-hours” while Meyer was “alone in her room without any support or resources.” The lawsuit says Meyer responded to the email “expressing how ‘shocked and distraught’ she was over being charged and threatened with removal from the university” and received a follow-up email that scheduled a meeting three days later.
Her parents said in the lawsuit that Meyer had “an acute stress reaction that impulsively led her” to take her life.
Stanford’s assistant vice president of external communications, Dee Mostofi, told USA Today on Wednesday that the school “strongly disagreed” with the lawsuit’s allegation that Stanford was responsible in Meyer’s death and hadn’t seen the complaint.
Meyer was a part of the 2019 national champion women’s soccer team. She stopped two penalty shots in Stanford’s 5-4 shootout victory over North Carolina after a scoreless draw. 108-page response dated Monday and obtained first by the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel on Thursday.
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NCAA investigators opened a case in December 2020 and became more involved within the two weeks before Pruitt was fired. The NCAA notified Tennessee in July of the most-serious Level 1 violations for allegations of providing impermissible cash, gifts and benefits worth about $60,000 to football recruits and their families under Pruitt.
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