Thursday, February 05, 2009High School Wrestling Hazing Leaves Five Suspended, Coach Removed These hazing cases get national headlines, school work hard to enforce tough policies, but they just keep on happening, don't they? The latest case comes to us from Thomas Stone High School (Maryland) where five wrestlers have not only been suspended from the team, but the coach has now also been removed for the rest of the season. Once again, the incident happened on a team bus coming back from a meet late at night with--apparently--not enough adult supervision. Details below are from the Washington Post's report, but my favorite part is from one of the suspended wrestlers, Zachary Lohr, who said--after getting caught--that "Every sport I've played in high school, something like this has happened. It happened to me and another kid on the wrestling team last year."Five Thomas Stone varsity wrestlers have been charged by the Charles County Sheriff's Office with misdemeanor hazing for their involvement in an incident on the team bus last month. All five have been suspended from school indefinitely, and first-year coach Michael Larson has been removed from his position for at least the remainder of the season.
While returning from a match at Great Mills on Jan. 20, several wrestlers taped the arms and legs of a teammate to a bus seat, then took pictures and teased him, said senior Zachary Lohr, one of the suspended wrestlers. The coach became aware of the activity in the back of the bus when the driver turned on the overhead light, Lohr said.
Larson, who did not return calls seeking comment, immediately demanded that the victim be untaped and warned the rest of the team that punishments would follow. "We take hazing very seriously," Charles County Public Schools spokeswoman Katie O'Malley-Simpson said. "Hazing falls under what we consider harassment, bullying . . . or anything that humiliates, teases, injures or potentially injures another student."
The wrestlers have been suspended from school indefinitely since Jan. 23, the same day they were charged as juveniles by the Charles County Sheriff's Office. Charles County Public Schools Superintendent James E. Richmond is expected to decide by tomorrow if the students will be allowed to return to school.
"We were just joking around," Lohr said. "We weren't trying to hurt him. Every sport I've played in high school, something like this has happened. It happened to me and another kid on the wrestling team last year."Labels: hazing
¶ 7:16 AM
Post a Comment