Seattle Public Schools — $125K settlement over Garfield swim team hazing and First Amendment retaliation

Seattle Public Schools paid $125,000 to settle a lawsuit from a former Garfield High School student who says a vice principal ordered him to stop talking to the school newspaper about swim team hazing — and that the district’s own investigators then tried to undercut his credibility by pointing to his autism.

What happened

Alex Thornewell, a former Garfield High School varsity swim team member with autism, received a $125,000 settlement from Seattle Public Schools (SPS) in May 2024 (King County Superior Court Case No. 22-2-10907-6 SEA). His lawsuit alleged the school retaliated against him for trying to speak to a school newspaper reporter about hazing on the swim team.

Thornewell first witnessed hazing in 2017 as a freshman. Per his account, upperclassmen would squat naked over the faces of freshmen during team activities, and he was told that “whatever occurs in the locker room remains in the locker room.” In 2020, during his junior year, Thornewell agreed to be interviewed by a school newspaper reporter. Before a follow-up interview could happen, the school’s vice principal allegedly confronted him, pulled him into a room, and ordered him to stop talking to the reporter.

When the district opened a formal hazing investigation — initiated by Garfield Athletic Director Carole Lynch, as confirmed in a later Public Records Act case — the investigator allegedly asked witnesses whether Thornewell’s autism made him prone to “exaggerate or fabricate details.” His family characterized that line of questioning as an effort to discredit him rather than investigate the hazing.

What the primary source says

The civil case was filed in 2022 and settled May 9, 2024 for $125,000. SPS did not admit wrongdoing.

A separate Public Records Act case brought by Thornewell’s mother — Amanda Thornewell v. Seattle School District No. 1, Washington Court of Appeals Case No. 85998-6-I, decided November 25, 2024 — confirms the investigation timeline and identifies district personnel involved, though the Court of Appeals ruled the district had not violated the Public Records Act on the records question. Plaintiff attorneys were Jeff Admon (Admon Law Firm) and Lara Hruska and Luke Hackenberg (Cedar Law).

Status

The civil settlement is final. The Public Records Act case was decided in the district’s favor in November 2024. The vice principal who allegedly silenced Thornewell has been referenced in court documents but has not been publicly named in available reporting.

Why it’s in the registry

This is a documented settlement of a First Amendment retaliation claim that SPS chose not to contest through trial. The case sits at the intersection of three concerns: student press freedom, how hazing investigations are run at the school where the alleged conduct happened, and whether a witness’s disability can be weaponized to discredit them. This is the same school and overlapping period as SPS-2024-001 (Garfield sex-abuse $16M settlement).

Reform implication

Three reforms apply. First, explicit protections for students speaking to school newspaper journalists, with administrative interference treated as a policy violation rather than a routine management call. Second, hazing-response protocols that route investigations outside the building’s own chain of command when the alleged hazing occurred at that building. Third, investigation standards that prohibit using a witness’s disability diagnosis as a basis for credibility attacks without specific evaluative authority. See [reform: first_amendment_protections_for_students], [reform: hazing_response_protocols], [reform: disability_inclusive_investigations].

Relationship to other cases

• SPS-2024-001 (Garfield sex-abuse $16M settlement) — same school, overlapping period; both involve athletic-program oversight failures.
• The parallel PRA case (Thornewell v. SPS, Washington Court of Appeals Case No. 85998-6-I) is the public records dimension of the same underlying matter.

Open follow-ups

• Vice principal’s name not publicly confirmed in available reporting.
• Settlement agreement text not retrieved; whether filed under seal unclear.
• Whether the underlying hazing produced any school discipline against involved students not confirmed.