Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

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Excerpt from 12 News

CHANDLER, Ariz. – Chandler police said both the principal and former football coach at Hamilton High School denied having any knowledge of hazing happening among players on the school’s football team. However, evidence collected during the investigation into allegations of sexual assault suggests otherwise.

Newly obtained police documents claim both principal Ken James and then head coach Steve Belles knew of the hazing and sexual assault allegations as far back as last year — but did not report it until a month later.

According to the documents, James had a meeting in November with two parents claiming their son was assaulted by other football players. The parents told police James took notes and then interviewed the victim without proper training, and did not notify police.

A binder containing notes from that meeting was found in James’ office when police served a search warrant at the school in June.

The report indicates Belles knew of the allegations as far back as May 2016 and eventually was instructed by James to handle the situation.

Police cite interviews with players who claim the coach, on several occasions, warned the players against hazing — allegedly telling them to “stop raping each other.”

Detectives also say Belles denied having a conversation in January with administrators about the hazing allegations, despite an email sent to him about the issue.

Read the whole story here

Excerpt:

La Vernia, TX — La Vernia’s school superintendent denies having any prior knowledge of the disturbing allegations of sexual abuse in his district. He tells News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila he first became aware of complaints a few weeks before police started arresting students.

Dr. Jose Moreno tells me he still believes any sexually abusive conduct was limited to a relatively small number of students. And it wasn’t known about or tolerated by coaches and administrators.

When asked when he first learned some misconduct might be taking place Moreno responded, “Mid-February. We received some allegations that were reported to us, and we immediately notified the authorities.”

That was about a month before a police investigation resulted in the first of thirteen arrests. All are students, some are adults, and some still juveniles. They’ve been accused of sadistic hazing initiations.

One student claims fellow football players sodomized him with a flashlight. On another occasion a threaded end of a carbon dioxide tank was allegedly used.

A federal lawsuit filed by parents’ claims football coaches were made aware of one attack in 2015 ……..

 

USMMA Scandal Link  

Excerpt:

Seven former members of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy men’s soccer team committed sexually abusive acts against a freshman player in September and bullied him for at least a month afterward, a government lawyer said Friday in federal court in Central Islip.

The students — all seniors who were not allowed to graduate in June — must appear in separate administrative hearings before the Kings Point school’s executive board to answer allegations of sexual misconduct, coercion and hazing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James H. Knapp said at the status conference.

Lawyers for the students, who have denied all the allegations, repeatedly objected to the academy’s disciplinary charges being read in court. U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Wexler denied their objections.

Knapp said “physical abuse” and “unreasonable verbal taunting” occurred on Sept. 2 and Sept. 10 on team bus trips to games at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, respectively.

They also “hazed by humiliation and physical act by squirting water and/or urine and by covering with food several individuals” on the bus, he said.

Moderator: I am outraged and you should be also.  Hazing information debacle    

I am not against competent companies and individuals providing educational services, of course.

But this enterprise was mismanaged.  Read the Naples article below. The program should have reached thousands of students for that kind of money.

MIAMI – A business co-founded by a state lobbyist kept more than $1 million as profit from a taxpayer-funded anti-hazing program because too few college students participated, records show.

Educational Management Services, paid $1.7 million by Florida Polytechnic University to run the statewide program, provided an anti-hazing course at the same time a similar course was being offered by the University of Central Florida to students in state colleges.

Fausto Gomez, the Miami lobbyist who once owned part of EMS, said the company now run by his wife, Alina, met all the terms of its contract despite the fact that only 95 students at one university completed the Hazing Solutions course online over two years.

The UCF program trained more than 41,000 students at 11 of the 12 state universities over three years for less than $1 million, records show.

Gomez, in an interview held at the Miami law office of Thomas R. Julin, discussed the state contract given to EMS in response to questions about how the company spent taxpayer money.

EMS cleared a $50,000 line of credit, contributed more than $107,000 to political campaign groups, and claimed $40,000 in expenses for two lobbyists after receiving the state anti-hazing contract in August 2015, records show.

More: Florida Polytechnic University cancels contract paid with hidden funding

Gomez said the loan was paid off in 2012, the political donations came from other funds and the lobbyists helped EMS. How the company’ spent profit from the state contract is private, he said.

Alina Gomez submitted documents to the House that said EMS spent nearly $660,000 to offer the course.

“EMS delivered the product and in addition, made it available and promoted it to all state universities,” she said in a statement Friday. “Having met all contractual obligations, EMS received payment for its services.” (Read the statement in its entirety at the bottom of this story.)

Gomez, who said state universities were to blame for not requiring students to use the course, compared the EMS effort to the Legislature hiring the company to provide a custom-built car.

“It wasn’t EMS’s fault the state didn’t want to drive the car,” Gomez said. “What was delivered was a fully functioning car.”

 

 

Here is the link and an excerpt below