AZTEC, N.M. (KRQE) – The Aztec Municipal School District has settled with the family who sued after a video showed an altercation between a football coach and a female student.
In 2022, video showed an incident at Aztec High School that led to then-head football coach Henry Straus being charged with criminal battery. Strauss was given a deferred sentence after pleading no contest to the charge in February.
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However, a lawsuit soon followed accusing the school district of failing to provide a safe environment for the student. The girl at the center of the lawsuit claimed she went off campus during lunch with a student football player. She said when the pair came back, the lawsuit claimed they were approached by Coach Strauss. The coach later confronted the girl during P.E. class.
The lawsuit claimed the incident caused emotional distress for the student that she’s coping with. Her attorneys said last year that the school then tried to make her sign a contract saying she would have no other contact with the football player she took to lunch.
The lawsuit was settled in federal court this week. The school district is paying the family $50,000 to end the case. Henry Strauss is no longer listed as the Aztec head football coach this year. But he is still on the school’s website as a P.E. teacher.
