Football practice and games at a Staten Island high school have been canceled, and a volunteer coach and three players have been suspended while authorities investigate reports of alleged hazing at the team's five-day training camp.
Susan E. Wagner High School principal Gary Giordano said in a letter to parents Tuesday that varsity and junior varsity football teams will not be holding practices or playing in games while the city Department of Education looks into reports of hazing at the team's training camp last month in Copake.
"Our school community takes great pride in all of our programs and we have a zero tolerance approach to any type of misconduct," Giordano wrote. "All those involved will be held accountable for their behavior.
Jason Fink, a spokesman for the Department of Education, says a volunteer coach on the team has been suspended and practices halted, adding in a statement to NBC 4 New York, "We have no tolerance for this type of behavior and the matter is under investigation."
Parents and students were also told at a meeting Wednesday three players have been suspended. The season has not yet been canceled, but it's not clear when the team will play again.
At the meeting to discuss the suspension of football activities, officials urged parents who felt that their children were victims of a crime during camp to contact the Columbia County Sheriff's Department.
The Columbia County Sheriff's Department told NBC 4 New York no official complaint has been filed.
The Staten Island Advance initially reported that a parent had contacted reporters about an injury her son sustained at the training camp in Copake. The parent stopped short of calling the incident hazing.
Local
Other parents have come forward since then, saying that some older players were shooting younger ones with a BB gun, scrawling explicit images on the boys with permanent markers while they slept and hitting them with socks filled with powder.
In other incidents, the Advance reports, older varsity players hit sophomores with broomsticks as they said, "Say that I'm the king." Other students apparently rubbed their exposed rear ends in other players faces as they slept.
Varsity football player Carlos Rios told NBC 4 New York outside the school Wednesday evening he was at the training camp and didn't see the alleged incident, but he and other players claim the broomstick beating didn't happen.
When asked what did happen, he said, "The BB guns, that's what happened. Kids got shot, but it's just horseplay. Not really like bullying."
His father, also named Carlos, said, "I don't think it's hazing. I think it's kids being kids. They're all roughhousing. Kids have been doing this since the beginning of time."
Parents said they want the guilty students punished but also want the football team back on the field.
"To punish the whole team doesn't make sense to me," said Leila Spangler.
Parent Carlos Rios said, "We're dying for it. We want to know. We need to get these guys back practicing."
The alleged hazing comes less than a year after another tri-state school, Sayreville War Memorial High School in New Jersey, canceled its football season after hazing incidents.
Several players received probation for their roles, and longtime coach George Najjar was demoted and taken out of his role with the team.
