High school cancels season after 3 players charged with rape

[n2doc]

Source: AP/ESPN

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- After three basketball players were charged with raping a teammate in an apparent hazing incident, a Tennessee high school has taken the unusual step of canceling the rest of the season, officials say.

The Ooltewah High School season has been called off "so that the criminal justice system can work the way we expect," Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith said Wednesday.

Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association executive director Bernard Childress said this is the first time he could remember a school canceling a season for disciplinary reasons.

Three teens face aggravated rape and aggravated assault charges in connection with injuries to a teammate, who underwent surgery after being assaulted while attending a basketball tournament in Gatlinburg. Tennessee law defines aggravated rape as a rape in which the defendant either has a weapon, causes bodily injury or is aided or abetted by another.

Read more: http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/14520526/tennessee-high-school-cancels-basketball-season-rape-charges

[Archae]

1. You know what the rest of the team will do?

Blame the victim.

Naturally.

[HubertHeaver]

2. After they are through crapping their individual pants,

each one will try to save himself.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Blaming the victim is not natural, that's something learned from parents and coaches.

They should blame both the rapists and the adults who empowered them.

[Igel]

30. Depends on the reasons given.

Non-conformity is something that every kid has to deal with, and obsessive obedience to rules is a phase that most elementary school kids go through.

Even in high school, conformity is a big deal, as kids form communities and start setting up and enforcing group boundaries. Doesn't matter if the parents are pushing "let's all just get along," the kids form groups with neat boundaries.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

24. Sodomized with a pool stick? Kind of hard to blame the victim

when he has a torn bladder and a torn intestine.

I hope the perps are charged as adults and do adult time.

[Sherman A1]

3. I believe this is a good move on the part of the district

It sends a very clear message that such behavior will not be tolerated and it will allow the investigation to proceed.

[christx30]

4. 100% agree.

Much better than the usual tactic of blaming the victim and protecting the guilt to save the season and get to State.

[7962]

12. Damn straight. No more "athletic immunity" nt

[redwitch]

16. Absolutely agree.

Good for them!

[Ivan Kaputski]

23. +1 no helicopter parrents on this one.

[Scuba]

5. Seems like they're punishing the innocent in addition to those accused.

[Aristus]

7. So the innocent won't get to play or watch basketball?

On the level of injustice, that ranks below the level in which the law and the school were to do nothing.

[Scuba]

9. False choice. I didn't recommend doing nothing.

They could suspend the accused players and continue the season, among other options.

[Aristus]

11. I think cancelling the season changes the potential penalty for rape and assault from

abstract (it won't happen to me if I hassle Jimmy just a little bit...) to concrete (we can't play basketball because those rapey assholes ruined it for everyone.)

It may help eliminate the culture that fostered such impulses in the first place.

[Scuba]

13. Hey, if you want to advocate punishing innocents go for it but I don't subscribe to that.

[Aristus]

14. I confess ignorance of sports psychology.

I know even less about the psychology of teenage sports enthusiasts. But I don't think cancelling the baskeball season over something as horrific as rape and aggravated assault could be described as 'punishment of the innocent'.

One thing I do know about teenagers is: if they're upset about the cancellation of the season, they get over it in a couple of days, and then find something else to focus their energies on.

[Cal Carpenter]

29. Preface - I'm not defending this decision

but it occurs to me that it may also have something to do with the fact that the perpetrators are minors and their names are not supposed to be made public. Suspending them would make it very obvious who they are.

I do imagine that the whole community already knows who they are, anyway, but it was just a thought that came to mind.

[JudyM]

6. Ought to continue the season minus the attackers. Give the guys on the bench the opportunity to

play. Unless by chance the school is more about winning than good sportsmanship.

[lark]

8. How disgusting and heinous!

Wonder why they didn't just kick off the 3 involved and let everyone else play? Seems to me this would just make life even harder for the injured guy. Wonder what the ethnicities of the parties are? If it was 3 white guys who raped a black guy, this would be even 10x uglier, including the response by the school. Of course I don't know this and it's sheer speculation, nothing at all about race is mentioned in the article.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. Because the school is correctly acknowleding that systemic problems exist.

nt

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

25. And how ugly would it be if it

was three black guys on one white guy?

[NoMoreRepugs]

10. think about it..

a high school team on a road trip, all they do is stick together - the rest of the team had ZERO idea what was happening or what might possibly happen? Facts will come out... sad situation

[Android3.14]

15. Three accused. It is a systemic problem

Cancelling the season was the proper move.

[mercuryblues]

17. three

three players charged so far. 1 in the hospital and 2 others were beaten. I have a feeling the investigation will reveal that a few other players witnessed it and did nothing.

[Uponthegears]

18. 100% SYSTEMIC

Hazing, by its very definition, is degradation.

In practice, it is often some form of sexual degradation. What these students did differed only in terms of severity from what class after class did before them AND what coaches, school administrators, and the majority of parents at least passively supported.

Cancel the rest of the season? They should fire the entire coaching staff and any other administrator who permitted ANY hazing in ANY form in ANY sport.

[NCjack]

19. Rapist controlled the team.

see: [link:http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/jan/07/ooltewah-high-school-basketball-seascancelled/343528/|]

Three teammates allegedly raped a freshman teammate; his injuries are ruptured colon and bladder. Three other boys were abused during the same trip. Also, beatings regularly occurred in the locker room.

Each year, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association instructs the coaches on preventing and handling hazing, but it still is occurring.

The varsity and junior varsity basketball games were cancelled. The freshman team games were not cancelled.

It appears to me that those at risk for criminal indictments are: the athletic director, the basketball coach, assistant basketball coaches, the rapists (at least 3), and those knowledgable but did nothing to stop the rapists and beatings. Probably when the police wrap up the investigation, suspensions made, and indictments issued, there will not be enough coaches and players to form a team. Did the rapists ruin the season for everyone? Not by themselves — it could have been saved before the rape(s?). When the first beating was given, someone should have gone to a coach. When a coach learned of the first beating, he should have stopped it. Instead, the beaters became rapists and gain control of the team.

Canceling the remainder of the games makes sense to me because if the team appeared for a game, the opponent’s insults and taunts could lead to a dangerous situation.

[tazkcmo]

27. I love sports

Played into my adulthood. I agree with everything you said. Well put, thank you.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Nice to see even one small corner of sports culture take a moment from excusing their own crimes

and consider the pervasive problems that constantly create this sort of abuse in the world of sports.

[Iggo]

26. Punishing the team is right. Hazing is a team sport. (n/t)

[uppityperson]

28. Good, hope they investigate the whole system, including coaches, etc

Yes, there will be some players who were in no way involved who will not get to play this season. But it sounds like a much larger problem than 3 players hazing others. Assaulting someone hard enough to cause injuries needing surgery to repair is not "hazing".

[Odin2005]

31. Cue everyone blaming the victims for "ruining their team's season".

[KitSileya]

32. It is good they cancelled their season.

After all, they should fire each and every one of the adults involved in said team, especially those who kept the rape on the down low to begin with. And how is a team to continue without coaches and teachers? If any of the other players had any sense, they would be grateful not to have to play on that team, a team where the coaches take a victim to a hospital yet does not report the rape to the police until the victim nearly dies because of shoddy treatment (question: does else think the coach pressured the victim to hide his injuries, or the nurse/doctor not to report?)

For heaven's sake, how can you argue to continue a season after the adults in charge not only not reported a brutal rape to the police, but chose to continue playing a tournament after three of their players brutally raped another player? How can one think that it would be safe to let the "innocent" players continue to play when the County superintendent claims that what happened is no reflection on the coaching staff? Those of you on this thread that thinks the other players should be allowed to continue playing apparently think that the sports season is more important than the safety of the players on the team. Shame on you!