Brooklyn High School Football Coach Accused Of Smashing Student‘s Head Into Wall

The student claims it was all because he fell asleep during a football team video review.

The mother of Shayson Willock, a 14-year-old high school student, is accusing his coach of smashing her son’s head into a wall, leaving him unconscious, The New York Post reports.

In a criminal complaint and civil lawsuit, coach Nicholas Nugent is accused of severely slamming Willock’s head into the wall of a stairwell at James Madison High School in Brooklyn in September 2023. Willock allegedly lost consciousness and required six staples to his skull.

Shayson’s mother, Deslyn Willock, filed a $2.5 million lawsuit on Aug. 26 against Nugent, the city of New York, and the Department of Education, claiming she doesn’t know who to trust anymore.

“I don’t know if I can trust the teachers,” she said. “I don’t know if I can trust the coaches. I don’t even know if I can trust the justice system. I don’t know who to trust at this point, because I felt like everyone failed me. Everyone failed my son.”

The complaint alleges Nugent became enraged when Willock fell asleep during a football team video review. According to the suit, the minor was getting over a bout with COVID and was having trouble staying awake during after-school activity. The coach then kicked him out and then followed him into the hallway. Willock was then allegedly slammed into the wall multiple times and pushed into a metal pole, before running back into a classroom with blood gushing from his head.

The high schooler said that’s when he passed out. “He was trying to tell them that he needed to go to the bathroom so I could wipe off the blood,” his mother said.

Deslyn Willock claims administrators told her that her son fell back during the argument but she could hear her son over the phone screaming, “He hurt me, he hurt me.” The family’s lawyer, Richard Kenny, said an MRI suggested a potential brain contusion and damage to his spine. “He has a compromised cervical region with multiple herniations, which is wholly abnormal for anyone remotely close to his young age,” Kenny said.

The Brooklyn high schooler, who received six staples in his skull, hasn’t been able to play the sport he loves since the incident.

After the coach was arrested on Sept. 18, he was charged with several counts of felony assault, endangering the welfare of a child and harassment and menacing. While he is on supervised release, Nugent said he can’t discuss the case but is excited to have his day in court.

“I’m shocked by the phone call to find out it’s a news thing, but hey, it is what it is. It’s all good,” he told The New York Post. “That’s why we’re going to trial, because I’m all about defending my freedom. I’m all about defending my rights.”

The mother said the school’s principal, Jodie Cohen, did keep in touch with her son and was concerned about his well being, however, she called out James Madison’s lack of concern with the coach’s behavior and working with law enforcement. “I don’t even think other parents really knew,” Deslyn Willock said.

This will be the second time in 2024 the school has come under fire for certain administrative decisions. According to CBS News, parents were fuming after city officials moved thousands of asylum seekers from the Floyd Bennett Field tent shelter in January 2024 to the school as protection against high winds and rain. The intense backlash resulted in a bomb threat.