Two men who attended Monroe County schools as students are compelling mediation in their civil suits alleging molestation by former Alabama and Mississippi prep football coach, Dwight Bowling.  According to reports in The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports, the young men claim that they were molested by Bowling while they were students in Smithville, Mississippi.  The claims also state that the Monroe County School District, to which they filed numerous complaints about the former coach, failed to do anything about the information provided against the coach.  In such, the young men claim that the school district is also responsible for the emotional and physical damages they endured. 

The attorney of the two men, Donald Medley of Hattiesburg, filed a motion this past week to compel mediation for the lawsuit that was filed against Bowling and the school district back in 2011.  However, Goodloe Lewis of Oxford, Bowling’s attorney, is requesting that both the lawsuit and the mediation request be thrown out of court due to the statute of limitations that he claims has ended. 

The two young men are part of a larger group of former students that have alleged molestation from the former coach.  Bowling is currently in federal prison in Petersburg, Virginia and is serving 35 years on federal and state charges of fondling, sexual battery, child exploitation, bribery of a witness, tampering with a witness and enticement of a minor for sex.

Donald Medley has high hopes for mediation and believes that it is in everyone’s best interest for the court to respond positively to his motion to compel mediation in the case.  In a statement, he said that the case "may be resolved by the use of the alternative dispute resolution of mediation” and hopes to avoid a prolonged trial hearing for the case that has been set for July of 2013 and later in 2014. 

The case has been a hotbed of controversy from the beginning, as several district officials have already been released from their posts in connection with their knowledge of the molestation incidents.  Bowling was placed under arrest on September 18, 2010, when he returned to his Mississippi home after coaching Sulligent High School in Alabama.  A 13-year-old boy was with the former coach when he was arrested and accused Bowling of improper touching on the trip.  The resulting indictment was taking minor males across state lines for sex and obstruction of justice in attempting to convince the young male victim to lie.