A family in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is suing the County Board of Education claiming their daughters were kicked off the Siegel High School girls' basketball team after complaining about being hazed.
While the school board admits that offensive touching took place on one occasion, they say the student-athletes were kicked off the team for repeatedly skipping practice. According to a court document, one girl cleaned out her locker and expressed an intention to quit.
The school board says the the "offensive touching" that took place was not necessarily sexual in nature. The student responsible was reprimanded.
According to this article in The Tennessean:
While the team member did receive some discipline for "goosing" the other three players or poking them between the buttocks, law enforcement authorities did not charge her with any criminal activity, said James Evans, spokesman for Rutherford County Schools.
"(Police) found no validity to their allegations," Evans said.
The family's lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, alleges a violation of Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972.
Meanwhile, the parents filing the lawsuit have been instructed to stay off school property after one or both of them threatened students and school officials during a basketball game, according to the school board's statement in the document.
