The Lisbon (Maine) High School athletic department is taking multiple hazing-prevention steps as an investigation into the football team's culture continues.
As reported by Portland CBS affiliate WGME, siting coverage by the Sun Journal in Lewiston, athletic director Chris Spaulding said in a report released Monday by school attorneys that the school is already making changes in an effort to prevent more hazing incidents.
Since the start of the investigation in October, athletes have had supervision at all times in locker rooms. The high school is also looking into mandatory hazing prevention courses for all coaches and student-athletes.
In October, administrators called for an independent investigation into possible hazing among players on the football team, which led to player suspensions and ultimately ended the season. The investigation was triggered once administrators learned that a freshman on the team had been pinned to the floor and hit with a broomstick. Freshmen players were poked with a broom, or forced to participate in belt fights, when the coaches weren't around.
Related: High School Suspends Football Activities Amid Hazing Investigation
Attorneys from the law firm Drummond Woodsum interviewed 40 students on the football team with school officials or a parent present. Attorneys conducting the investigation say most were visibly nervous and resistant to volunteer details. Reportedly "school staff reported hearing football players tell their teammates not to tell the truth, not to cooperate and to 'not say anything.'"
Investigators uncovered what's being described as a culture of hazing among the team's upperclassmen.
WGME reported the details as follows:
- Upperclassmen swung open a chain link door separating the locker room "to trap younger players, poking some with a broom handle, which was later in the upperclassmen's locker room.
- Younger players were forced to participate in "belt battles,," where players whipped each other with leather belts in the locker room, leaving a mark on at least one freshman. These belt fights were often recorded by a player and posted to the football team's Snapchat.
- Players on the football team also participated in wrestling matches before practice, with a junior stuffing a freshman headfirst into a garbage can.
The investigation found "each of these activities constitutes hazing under school policy and 'indicates a culture of hazing and rough housing on the football team.' They also fall within the scope of prohibited bullying by 'inflicting bodily harm to threaten, intimidate, coerce, or harass another person.'"
