Excerpt:
The legal papers do not identify Wilson school officials by name, only referring to them as district “representatives.â€
More detailed accusations about what happened on the bus ride — as well as what some school district officials knew about all the incidents and when — are contained in the papers, obtained by The Buffalo News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Among them:
• Four adults, including coaches, were on the bus at the time of the attack. Coaches were told about violent behavior before the April bus trip was over, as well as after the team arrived back in Wilson. The player who asked school personnel to intervene did so while standing beside one of the victims in a school parking lot — but no further action was taken.
• One of the victims was attacked on the team bus on the way back from a game in Albion five days later. He already was one of two students who had become specific targets of hazing and other violence by varsity players.
• A school official observed less severe incidents last year, then told the players to go back to their seats on the bus. For discipline, extra running was doled out at practice.
“The notice of claim speaks for itself,†said Terrence M. Connors, an attorney for the families of two alleged victims.
This year’s attack involved a varsity player sitting on the first victim’s chest to restrain him, while he was beaten and a cell phone was inserted into his rectum, the legal papers claim.
The second victim also was restrained, beaten and had “what felt like multiple fingers†inserted into his rectum, the papers said.
The player who was sodomized with the bat last year said he participated in this year’s attack “because things like that happened to me before,†according to the notice of claim.
He also admitted using a cell phone in this year’s sexual assault, the document claims.
It also claims the father of the victim- turned-attacker called a school representative after the baseball bat incident last year, and players were told to run extra laps at practice as discipline.
