U.S. Football Coach Accused of Smashing 14-Year-Old Student’s Head Into Wall, Requiring Skull Stitches
A 14-year-old high school student’s football aspirations were shattered when his coach allegedly slammed his head into a wall, his distraught mother claims in new court documents.
Shayson Willock, from Brooklyn, New York, was reportedly assaulted by coach Nicholas Nugent in a stairwell at James Madison High School last September. The attack was so severe that Shayson lost consciousness and required six staples in his skull, according to a criminal complaint and a civil lawsuit.
“I don’t know who to trust,” said his mother, Deslyn Willock, expressing frustration with school administrators who she believes tried to cover up the incident. She ultimately reported the attack to the NYPD herself.
“I don’t know if I can trust the teachers, the coaches, or even the justice system,” Deslyn said after filing a $2.5 million lawsuit against Nugent, the city, and the Department of Education. “Everyone failed me. Everyone failed my son.”
Nugent was arrested a few days after the September 18, 2023 incident, during which he allegedly flew into a rage after Shayson dozed off during a team video review. Nugent is facing multiple felony assault charges, as well as charges of endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and menacing, according to the criminal complaint.
Nugent was released on supervised release, but the Department of Education has not confirmed whether he is still employed by the school district.
When contacted by The New York Times, Nugent declined to discuss the case. “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,” Nugent said. “That’s why we’re going to trial, because I’m all about defending my freedom. I’m all about defending my rights.”
DOE spokesperson Jenna Lyle responded to the lawsuit by saying, “The safety of our students is our number one priority. We will review the lawsuit.”
According to the lawsuit, Shayson was still recovering from a rough bout of COVID and was struggling to stay awake during the after-school video review in a classroom when Nugent kicked him out and followed him into the hallway. Nugent allegedly slammed Shayson into the wall multiple times and pushed him into a metal pole. Shayson then ran back into the classroom, bleeding from his head, with Nugent in pursuit.
The high schooler said that he passed out shortly after.
“He was trying to tell them that he needed to go to the bathroom so I could wipe off the blood,” Shayson recalled.
When Shayson’s mother received a call that her son was bleeding from his head, school administrators initially claimed he had fallen during the argument, even as she could hear her son screaming, “He hurt me, he hurt me.”
Deslyn says she arrived at the school before any ambulance, despite the emergency room being less than 500 feet away. “I saw my son just lying there, bleeding from his head,” she said.
Shayson received six staples in his head, was concussed, and hasn’t played football since the incident.
Later MRIs suggest he may have suffered a brain contusion and spinal damage, according to the family’s lawyer, Richard Kenny. “He has a compromised cervical region with multiple herniations,” Kenny said, “which is wholly abnormal for anyone remotely close to his young age.”
Deslyn took leave from work to care for Shayson, who was out of school for a month and spent nights writhing in pain.
Shayson has since switched schools but says he can’t imagine playing sports again, even if his doctor clears him. “I just didn’t like football anymore,” Shayson said, adding that he quit because “I didn’t know if it was gonna happen again.”
“When the situation first happened, he told me he felt like he doesn’t have a life anymore,” Deslyn said. “He feels like everything was taken away from him.”
“As a mother,” she added, “I would love for him to play football again one day.”