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Roosevelt checks other teams after allegations surface

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Roosevelt looks to move past hazing allegations

David Young, (Bio) dyoung@greeleytribune.com
March 24, 2008

JOHNSTOWN — In the wake of six Roosevelt High School students suspended for a hazing incident that sparked an investigation by the District Attorney’s office in Delta, school officials are working to ensure something like that doesn’t happen again.

“Our staff has worked very closely with students,” said Martin Foster, superintendent of the Re5J School District. “Mr. Bruce (principal) is planning some activities with counseling and speakers coming in to address hazing, harassment and those type of things.”

On March 3, six students from the baseball team were suspended for an incident that occurred on a trip to Delta for a tournament.

According to a report by 9News, a parent said in an interview that her son was one of five freshman boys who were held down while upperclassmen rubbed their genitals on the players’ faces.

On Wednesday, Foster said he could not elaborate on the school’s investigation of the incident, but he confirmed the students are still suspended.

“We are conducting an investigation of the alleged incident and will follow up with appropriate disciplinary actions,” said Foster, who noted the school has up to a calendar year to expel the students.

Foster said students seem to be moving on from the investigation their team faces.

“Students are coming to terms with all that has happened. They are a good group of students,” Foster said. “I think everyone has learned a pretty hard lesson in regards to this.”

Athletic director Linda Klipp said her athletes have showed resolve, especially the baseball team, which is off to a solid start to the season.

“It’s really died down,” Klipp said. “The baseball team is doing well and has come together.”

Klipp said the school is working with groups from Boulder to discuss a possible hazing program. The potential program would address the general school population and a more specific program for athletes, Klipp said.

“We understand when you have something that affects a team like it did, you are going to have some ramifications from it,” Klipp said.

Seventh Judicial District Attorney Myrl Serra said last week his office is helping the Delta Police Department investigate the reports. He did not return phone calls this week.

Johnstown police chief Reggie Mayes said last week that his department gathered information and passed it on to investigators in Delta.

The incident comes on the heels of five wrestlers at Loveland Middle School who were suspended two days in February and held from competition for a week after a “nasty incident” in which authorities noted students touched their genitals and buttocks and then proceeded to rub their hands on other students’ faces.

One student’s mother pulled her child from the district after that incident.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Re-5J School District and the district attorney’s office in Delta will continue to conduct separate investigations into reports of hazing by Roosevelt High School students.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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