It hasn’t been a good school year when it comes to hazing allegations and high school sports teams. Seven football players in Sayreville, N.J., are currently facing criminal charges due to their alleged role in hazing incidents, while, two weeks ago, the Central Bucks (Pa.) school district cancelled the remainder of its football season due to “allegations of improper conduct.”
Last week, two more hazing allegations surfaced involving high school sports teams. Eldred (N.Y.) High School forfeited its football team’s season finale this past weekend “amid reports of widespread and pervasive hazing,” according to a statement on the district’s website, while Cheltenham (Pa.) High School released information last Tuesday about a reported hazing incident that occurred in September with its boys’ soccer team.
In Eldred, over a three-week period, “members of the football team engaged in such inappropriate hazing acts commonly referred to as ‘teabagging,’ as well as students sitting on each others’ faces, and pushing their face into the other student’s ‘junk’ while on school grounds,” according to the statement on the district website. The students were fully clothed during these alleged incidents.
“Our school district’s highest priority is the safety and security of all of our students,” Eldred Central Superintendent Robert Dufour said in the statement. “While these acts did not result in any physical harm, they were not harmless in intent. Hazing is not acceptable, will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with severely by the district.”
The district notified the local police department of the hazing allegations, and the police are working to determine whether any students violated the law.
In Cheltenham, members of the boys’ soccer team were “dangled by their underwear” in a hazing incident in September, district spokeswoman Susan O’Grady said in a statement this past Tuesday,
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