The grand jury investigation into a hazing incident at Cheltenham (Pa.) High School from 2025 has concluded and four football coaches along with six student-athletes have been charged.
Montgomery County district attorney Kevin R. Steele and Cheltenham Township acting police chief Richard Chaffer told Fox29 News that the coaches have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and conspiracy. One student athlete is charged with aggravated assault and another is charged with false swearing to police. The other student-athletes are still minors, so their charges have not been made public.
Related: Pennsylvania High School Cancels 2026 Football Season While Hazing Investigation Continues
The hazing was first reported in fall 2025, and the football program was suspended in Oct. 2025 — later canceled in Nov. 2025. The investigation confirmed that a student-athlete was assaulted by another student-athlete in the locker room while at least 19 others watched and recorded the incident. Investigators found that a lack of locker room supervision by coaches and staff was partially to blame.
Former head coach Terence Tolbert, associate head coach Darian “DJ” McFadden, assistant coach Benjamin Johnson II and volunteer coach Ralph Burnley have been released on $5,000 bail following a preliminary arraignment.
Throughout the grand jury investigation, the group discovered that upon learning of the locker room assault, coaches did not report the incident to school administrators or the victims parents. Instead, the four coaches handled the matter within the team, and the victim’s mother only discovered the incident days later, when her son requested medical care.
"These assaults on a football player were not the typical goofing around by teammates. These were crimes," said district attorney Steele. "Numerous witnesses, many reluctant to share what they saw and knew, testified about what occurred in the Cheltenham High School locker room on these two occasions and testified about actions taken by some of the football coaches after the assaults."
