The parents of a 17-year-old Oregon high school student have filed a $38 million lawsuit against the Hermiston School District, claiming it failed to properly respond to a concussion their son suffered during a football game and now he has permanent brain damage.

Athletic officials at Hermiston High School didn't treat Connor Martin or tell his parents about a concussion he suffered in a helmet-to-helmet collision during a September 2016 junior varsity football game, the suit says. The boy was 15 then.

The district’s athletic trainer cleared the teen to play four days later, despite lingering symptoms of concussion, the suit says.

At a game in October 2016, he hit his head repeatedly and suffered injuries that knocked him unconscious, exacerbating the earlier concussion, according to the lawsuit.

Connor Martin in 2018.

Two hours later, Martin’s mother arrived home to find him “curled up in the fetal position on the couch, sobbing because of a severe headache,” the suit states. Martin was unable to walk without falling and spent most of the night vomiting, according to the suit.

Today, Martin still suffers from headaches, vision problems, light sensitivity, balance problems that have caused him to fall and break his nose and brain damage that prevents him from returning to school full time, the lawsuit says.

His attorneys also say Martin is unable to safely swim, bowl or hunt -- activities he used to enjoy. He also can't drive a car in his current condition, and may never be able to, his lawyers said.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Umatilla County Circuit Court.

In a district statement, the district declined comment, citing legal and privacy reasons.

"Our focus is always on the safety and emotional well-being of our students and in providing them a first-class education," reads the statement. "If there are lessons to be learned from this or any other situation we will apply them with that focus in mind."

The dangers posed by concussions in youth sports have become a much-debated issue in the past decade. From 2009 to 2016, U.S. high-school athletes suffered almost 2.7 million concussions, according to a study in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study's authors noted that the number of repeat concussions in student athletes has been trending downward year by year, thanks to laws passed nationwide calling for better identification and response to such injuries.

Every state in the nation -- including Oregon -- has passed a law in the past five to 10 years that sets out protocols for concussion response, according to the study.

In 2009, Oregon lawmakers passed Max's Law -- named for 17-year-old quarterback Max Conradt, who suffered a concussion on a southern Oregon football field, then was cleared to play in another game without high school officials recognizing the severity of his injury. He collapsed at half-time because of serious bleeding near his brain, fell into a coma for three months and emerged with irreversible brain damage.

The law prohibits players from being sent back into a game after a suspected concussion, requires a medical professional to examine and clear players before they can return to play and calls for coaches to receive annual training in recognizing concussion symptoms.

Martin’s lawsuit claims that Hermiston School District officials violated the law by returning Martin to play in the September 2016 game after an athletic trainer suspected he’d suffered a concussion. The lawsuit states that Martin’s coach had to pull Martin from the game again because he was disoriented and couldn’t remember the plays.

The suit also claims that Martin wasn’t released by a medical professional before being allowed to return to football practice and games.

Martin's parents -- Dawna and Todd Martin -- filed the lawsuit on his behalf because he's still a minor. Portland attorneys Martin Dolan and Patricia Pascone are representing the family.

The suit seeks more than $13 million for past and future medical bills, assistance with performing the tasks of daily living, occupational therapy, future impaired earning capacity and psychiatric care for Martin's anxiety and depression. The suit also seeks $25 million for his pain and suffering.

Read the lawsuit here.

-- Aimee Green