Let Them Play Michigan Sues MI Health Director

LANSING, MI — A Michigan advocacy group of high school student athletes and their parents sued Michigan's health director to reverse a state ban on contact sports amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Let Them Play Michigan filed a complaint Tuesday in the Michigan Court of Claims against Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, to force her to lift the ban.

"We've been having fantastic conversations with the health director. They've been very positive," said Peter Ruddell, an attorney representing Let Them Play Michigan in the lawsuit. "We would prefer not to take court action. Unfortunately, we were forced to file a complaint this morning."

Related: Michigan High School Athletes Call On Whitmer To 'Let Us Play'

The lawsuit — which also was filed on behalf of the Michigan Amateur Youth Hockey League and some high school athlete parents — argues that the ban on winter sports violates constitutional clauses on equal protection, due process, free assembly and free education, as well as Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act related to age-based discrimination and state administrative procedures, Ruddell said in a virtual news conference Tuesday.

"When an individual's rights are taken away in some fashion they are generally afforded an opportunity to protest that," Ruddell said. "In this case, the only opportunity is to go through the court system, a violation of a right to free assembly. That is a First Amendment right and has been guaranteed to all of us."

Patch reached out to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office for comment on the lawsuit.

Whitmer announced on Jan. 22 that the beginning of indoor contact sports would be pushed back from Monday to Feb. 21. State health officials cited fears of coronavirus spread as the reason they have kept winter sports shut down.

Thousands of high school coaches, players and parents held a rally Saturday at the Michigan Capitol in support of kicking off winter sports. MLive reported that the Let Them Play Michigan cause has grown to more than 36,000 supporters since the state delayed the start of winter sports.

Tuesday's lawsuit blamed the Jan. 18 death of a Michigan high school hockey player on the "mental struggles he endured from continued delays in winter sports."

Brennan Dethloff, an 18-year-old senior at Mona Shores High School, died from injuries sustained in a car crash two days earlier, according to a post by the school and multiple news reports. He was a senior hockey player who battled ongoing mental health issues, and the two coronavirus delays to the season weighed heavily on him, his parents told MLive.

“You could see it in his face and his body language and his demeanor that it just took it out of him,” Brian Dethloff said in an interview with MLive.

"It is an unfortunate story," Ruddell said. "They had a child who is a victim of a single-car crash and is no longer with us. ... His younger brother had planned to play high school hockey with him and unfortunately is unable to do so."