Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog
Police Report Details Alleged Hazing Incident That Led to Lake Catholic Forfeiting First Game of Season
- GIOVANNI ARTEAGA
The incident dates back to July and centers on something called the "atomic sit-up."
Two football teams were having their summer camps at John Carroll University and staying in the same campus hall when the superintendent of the Madison School District called the John Carroll University Police Department to report a possible hazing incident involving their football team. While JCUPD investigated, officials said they saw a hazing incident on surveillance cameras on the floor where the Lake Catholic team was staying.
The incident, according to statements gathered in the police report, involved two underclassmen who were forced to perform what’s called by one source close to the investigation as an “atomic sit-up.” It's when someone does a sit-up blind folded into the naked buttocks of a player who is squatting. There were two victims and five suspects, and other players in the room, according to reports.
***
(Original story 8/26/16): Seeing a need to address allegations of hazing during a summer football camp, Lake Catholic High School Principal Robert Kumazec announced that the football team will forfeit its first game of the season.
Here's the gist: In July, allegations of a "hazing incident" and a subsequent criminal investigation picked up headlines following the school's summer football camp at John Carroll University. It's unclear what exactly occurred, but around that time Kumazec sent a letter to parents, saying: "It is my responsibility to inform you that there is a possibility that your son may have captured inappropriate pictures and/or video involving nudity and/or partial nudity [during the football camp]."
Fast-forward to late August, and, as the Morning Journal reports, the school administration and football coaching staff have decided to issue a stack of one-game suspensions to a number of players. “Consequently," Kumazec writes, "the team is unable to field a squad sufficient in number to play this Saturday’s home game against Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School. Lake Catholic has notified Toledo St. John’s Jesuit High School of its intent to forfeit the game."
The game was scheduled for this weekend, on Aug. 27.
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