A high school football player in North Texas was allegedly shot with a pellet gun and called racial slurs during a hazing incident.
According to NBC 5, parents o f a Lewisville ISD student-athlete reported the incident, sharing disturbing details of the alleged hazing by the student's teammates.
Amy and Doug, who did not give their last names to protect the identity of their son, said their son was stripped down and shot multiple times with a pellet gun. They said they learned of the incident in October but their son kept it a secret.
It wasn't until a video of the incident emerged that they were able to see what had actually happened. The then discovered pellet wounds on their son's torso, back and arms.
“We have a problem. We have a real big problem here,” said Amy, whose son moved up from the JV team to varsity this semester. “He was so excited.”
Amy and Doug's son was hazed and called a racial slur by this teammates and then had video of the incident shared on social media.
“I couldn’t even finish watching the videos. I had to stop it. I was shaking. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said Amy.
The incident occurred after a team dinner on October 22. Amy and Doug said after the dinner, their son was corralled in a garage by about a dozen teammates.
“He was basically dogpiled and depants-ed, and then they had the weapon pulled on him,” said Doug, who says about 40 seconds worth of video has been turned over to police.
“He feared for his life. He’s been raised around guns. There was no orange tip on the end of that gun, so he thought it was a real gun. Not until they started shooting did he realize it was a pellet gun,” explained Doug, noting that his son was struck about eight times out of 40 shots fired.
The parents took their concerns to the Marcus High School leadership, but six weeks later, nothing has been done. They now think the incident is being ignored. They're also disappointed that the Double Oak police have not yet charged any of the team members.
“They called the boys out of class and their parents, and those boys were back in the locker room Tuesday morning and then were still at school for two weeks roaming the halls, talking about how this is being made a bigger deal than what it actually is,” said Amy.
NBC 5 obtained the results of investigation into the matter, reporting the following:
The findings say after more than 70 student interviews, more than 20 staff interviews, meetings with 13 parents who came forward with concerns, comprehensive LISD staff email searches, a review of SportsYou messaging app messages between staff and students, and a relevant review of District policies and procedures, “The Incident of Concern met the LISD Board Policy FNCC definition of 'hazing' and appropriate disciplinary consequences were issued in accordance with the LISD Student Code of Conduct and LISD Extracurricular Code of Conduct.” In addition, the findings state, “The Incident of Concern met the LISD Board Policy FFI (Legal) and FFI (Local) definition of 'bullying' and appropriate disciplinary consequences were issued.”
The district did not give details on what punishments were imposed, and said it did not find evidence of a "culture of hazing within the entire Marcus High School Varsity Football Program."
Double Oak police said that it could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
NBC 5 reported the following corrective measures listed in the report of the investigation:
Included in the district’s findings is a list of corrective actions including strengthening existing extracurricular student code of conduct policies, ensuring that all parent-organized MHS team dinners occur on campus with staff supervision, implementing enhanced supervision procedures and schedules for MHS Football locker rooms and team spaces, providing additional training for students and staff on bullying, hazing, and reporting processes, increasing campus and district administrative support for coaching staff as these improvements are put in place.
