A suburban New Orleans woman whose teenaged son died by suicide hours after his Catholic school expelled him in the wake of what he termed a shoving match with a campus bully is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the local archdiocese.

Sara Brannon contends that Rummel high school in Metairie, Louisiana, was negligent in its treatment of her son, 17-year-old Devon Shelton, and is therefore owed damages, including for mental anguish as well as physical pain and suffering.

New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese, which oversees Rummel, declined comment on Brannon’s lawsuit after it was submitted in state court on Tuesday ahead of a one-year filing deadline.

A statement from an institution spokesperson cited a policy against commenting on pending litigation, though it did add: “We hold Devon’s family and friends, particularly his parents, in prayer.”

As recounted in his mother’s lawsuit, Shelton’s death alludes to the association among bullying, depression and suicide-related behaviors that researchers say has been established by several peer-reviewed studies.

Shelton was a junior marching with Rummel’s music band at a St Patrick’s Day parade when afterward he reported to Brannon and his former stepfather, Rick Ford, that he had gotten into a shoving match with an ensemble mate who had been bullying him, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said Shelton had not previously gone to school administrators about the bullying because, as he phrased it to Ford, that “makes it harder for anyone that reports it”.

Ford had nonetheless encouraged Shelton to report the problem to Rummel’s front office when school officials summoned both of them along with Brannon to a meeting the next day, which was 17 March 2025.

Though they had not spoken with Shelton about the incident or a girl who had witnessed it, Rummel’s principal accused Devon of having shoved the other boy against a locker in an attempt to start a fight.

The principal also – for the first time – mentioned to Ford and Brannon that Shelton had shown up to band practice days earlier with the smell of alcohol on his breath, the lawsuit said. Shelton had purportedly admitted to a faculty member that he had drank at home before going to school. And because of both that and the shoving, Rummel had decided to expel him.

The school knew Shelton had previously expressed suicidal ideation to a friend, as a result requiring him to complete six months of outside counseling during his freshman year in 2023, the lawsuit said. Meanwhile, Ford allegedly pleaded to the principal: “Rummel is Devon’s life … How can you treat him like this?

“There must be another solution.”

The principal allegedly replied: “We think it best if Devon finds another school to attend … [He] is not showing the improvement we want to see.”

Brannon subsequently drove her son to Ford’s house, telling the boy they would figure out a way through the setback together. She left him with Ford – a Rummel alumnus whom Shelton called “dad” – while she went to pick up his younger brother from a neighbor who was babysitting on short notice.

While Ford’s nephew cooked dinner, Shelton took a shower and then locked himself in a room he had at the house. A strange noise coming from the room prompted the nephew and Ford to try to check on Shelton, Brannon’s lawsuit said.

Ford had to break the room’s door down when he realized it was locked and Shelton wouldn’t answer. He discovered Shelton had found a weapon Ford kept hidden atop a wall cabinet in the bathroom and died by suicide, according to the lawsuit.

The wrongful death lawsuit that Brannon later filed argues – among other things – that Rummel did not adhere to its own student handbook, specifically with respect to its sections on expulsion and bullying. The suit also maintained that Rummel could have let Shelton complete the school year virtually and failed him by not providing him “any assistance whatsoever in the aftermath of his abrupt and unexpected expulsion”.

One of the civil attorneys representing Brannon is Richard Trahant, who has represented numerous claimants of sexual abuse by clergy under the command of New Orleans’s archdiocese. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 in the wake of the decades-old, worldwide Catholic church’s clergy molestation scandal.

In December, the archdiocese and its insurers agreed to pay about $305m to settle with roughly 600 abuse survivors.

Shelton’s online obituary described him as a devoted marching band musician, playing trumpet, mellophone, french horn and tuba. He was also a varsity bowling team member, volunteered annually at a charitable bicycle ride meant to support people with multiple sclerosis and enjoyed gaming as well as watching anime with his friends.