Four high school football players at Boyd (Texas) High School outside Fort Worth have been arrested, and face felony charges after allegedly restraining and assaulting a 14-year-old student in a locker room shower.
As reported by KDFW, the four students face felony charges of injury to a child causing bodily injury and unlawful restraint.
Warrants state the victim suffered spinal and back injuries during the attack, which occurred Sept. 3 while a coach allegedly failed to intervene and advised against reporting it.
Some have described the incident as "football boys being boys," and defense attorneys argue the culture of locker room "hijinks" has existed for years, but police emphasize the incident was a clear criminal assault rather than harmless hazing, KDFW's David Sentendrey reported.
Court documents say the boy was restrained, dragged into a field house shower and injured while being held down by the four varsity football players and trying to escape. "He was taken into the shower area, stripped of his clothes," Boyd Police officer Ray Cannon said, adding players' private parts made contact with the victim, per KDFW.
According to arrest warrants, the boy "reported that he was crying, screaming 'No, no, no,' and actively attempting to fight his way away from the students."
A coach heard the commotion and told the boys to "settle down," but then "walked out of the locker room," according to the warrants. Police said a portion of the incident was captured on security cameras from a nearby weight room, Sentendrey reported.
The boy's parents contacted the Boyd High School principal, and the victim later met with the coaching staff. One coach reportedly said the situation "needed to be handled in the locker room and didn't need to be reported further up."
Police said the boy had several bruises on his "back and shoulder area" and "bruises down his spine."
"There have to be consequences," Cannon said. "We can't let someone get away with something just because they're in high school or because they're younger."
Attorneys for 17-year-old Noah Davis Stevens, one of the alleged perpetrators, released a statement saying the situation "could have been addressed by the coaching staff."
"But here we are," the statement said. "This kind of behavior has been going on for years at this high school. Our client experienced similar locker room hijinks when he began playing football there. Context and culture matter."
