Julia Pernsteiner suicide: College coach Ron Grigg allegedly fat-shamed runner, called her 'retarded' and cut her from team
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: A month before Julia Pernsteiner died by suicide, the student-athlete claimed that a Florida university's track and field coach "fat shamed" and "humiliated" her. The 23-year-old Jacksonville University student killed herself in her dorm in 2021 and she had been dismissed from the cross-country team two months prior. Her parents are suing Jacksonville University on the grounds that officials ignored her pleas for help.
According to a lawsuit, Ron Grigg, a former track and field coach at Jacksonville University, brutally made fun of Julia, a student with a learning condition, before dismissing her from the team without warning. The athlete used running the track as an outlet to cope with her academics, which she found difficult because her impairment had an impact on her reading, writing, and math abilities. Unfortunately, it was claimed that Grigg took a "special satisfaction" in making fun of her, frequently calling her fat and referring to her as "retarded", reported Fox News.
READ MORE
Woman stabs her three children to death, kills herself after husband goes out to buy TV for family
The horrifying bullying story of Julia Pernsteiner
Julia, who had learning disabilities, was persuaded by Grigg to move to JU and join the cross-country group. Julia tried to stay focused on her sport while her grades started to decline, but she was surrounded by "a toxic atmosphere of humiliation and intimidation." The lawsuit claims, "Teammates recall (track coach) Ron Grigg taking a special satisfaction in humiliating Julia, referring to her as ‘retarded,’ ‘the slowest f***ing runner on the team’ and unable to ‘wipe your own a**’."
According to the lawsuit, Grigg bullied Julia for nearly two years, making fun of her in messages and emails, in front of her, and behind her back. In court documents, her teammates stated that he frequently treated several of the girls on the team in an oppressive, threatening, bullying, condescending, and insulting manner.
Julia was removed from the team in September 2021 without being given a cause after two years of Grigg's horrifying bullying. In an email to the university's sports director, Alex Ricker-Gilbert, in October 2021, she begged for assistance and begged to be allowed back onto the team because she relied on her athletic life to get through.
In an email that was a part of the lawsuit, she stated, "I just don’t know where to go from here. I would like to stay and work on improving my grades. I just am not able to do it myself. I’m looking for advice on how to proceed.'' The faculty, however, paid no attention to the athlete's pleas for help. Julia "spiraled into desperation and depression" after receiving no response to her email. The 23-year-old was discovered dead in her dorm room on November 8, 2021, apparently of suicide.
The lawsuit against Jacksonville University and its former track coach
The former track coach at Jacksonville University is being sued by the parents of the late Julia Pernsteiner, who claim he "humiliated" their daughter. Other former members of the same track team have mentioned similar bullying behavior that Julia experienced in the lawsuit filed by her parents.
To report Grigg's alleged behavior to university authorities, Julia's parents got in touch with other former members of her track team. Many of them claimed Grigg had harassed women on the squad. Although Grigg has worked for the university since 1998, many members of the track and field team have since drawn a distressing image of his behavior, in which he frequently belittled individuals he was supposed to be assisting.
Jacksonville University responded to the lawsuit with the following statement in an email: "The students, faculty, and staff of Jacksonville University continue to mourn Julia’s tragic death and we sympathize with the Pernsteiner family for their loss. Per University policy, we do not comment on pending litigation."