A high school football coach and six players in Oregon are facing criminal charges for “aggressive” hazing that involved inappropriate touching of young victims’ genitals, according to prosecutors.
The case at Philomath high school, located in a small town 90 miles south of Portland, is the latest hazing controversy to disrupt a school community, and experts say dangerous initiation rituals are increasingly coming to light across the country as more students capture activities on their smartphones.
Benton County district attorney John Haroldson said six students, aged 15-17, are facing a range of assault and harassment charges, including “offensive physical contact with intimate parts”. The hazing allegedly involved 11 freshmen victims, and Haroldson said in a statement that the “underclassmen’s intimate areas were aggressively targeted as a form of initiation”.
Cooper Kikuta, a 22-year-old volunteer coach who previously played on the team, is also facing a “criminal mistreatment” charge “for having assumed responsibility for the supervision of the players and withholding necessary and adequate physical care for those who were targeted in his presence”, prosecutors said.
“This was a very aggressive form of hazing,” Haroldson said in an interview Wednesday. “Our priority is the safety of our community and the safety of our children.”
The students are facing charges in juvenile court, and Kikuta is accused of a misdemeanor offense, which could land him a year in jail.
Although the offenses involved “intimate parts”, Haroldson said his office declined to file sexual assault charges. “I have not seen evidence to support a claim that this was done for sexual gratification.”
The specifics of the team’s hazing ritual are unclear, though the Associated Press said it allegedly involved touching of the victims’ genitals and anuses.
Stories of violent hazing at universities have been in the news for years. In 2015, 37 members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity at Baruch College in New York City were charged for participating in a “brutal” ritual in 2013 that led to the death of a student who suffered multiple traumas. Five faced third-degree murder charges.
Mike Deng, the student who died, allegedly had to run blindfolded while fraternity brothers hit him.
In addition to college frat cases, experts say there has been a rise in reports of high school hazing, in part due to the fact that more of the incidents are recorded, with leaked photos and videos leading to investigations and sometimes charges.
Elliot Hopkins, director of sports, sanction and student services with the National Federation of State High School Associations, said some estimates suggest that as many as 1.5 million high school students face some kind of hazing each year, though not all cases are as serious or violent as the Philomath allegations.
It’s been a longstanding problem that has faced much greater exposure in recent years, he said. “Why didn’t this stop 20 years ago? … Now, everyone has a phone, and it always gets out.”
One study concluded that 800,000 student athletes are hazed each year and suggested that problem may be rampant in high schools.
Research from the University of Maine found that a quarter of coaches or advisers were aware of hazing behavior, and that 95% of hazing victims didn’t tell authorities. Additionally, nine out of 10 students who experienced behaviors classified as hazing didn’t consider themselves hazing victims.
High school cases typically result in plea deals, lawsuits and firings or resignations, Hopkins said.
Melissa Goff, superintendent of the Philomath school district, said in a statement: “Our first priority at all times is the safety of our students. We take hazing and bullying issues very seriously, and we have no tolerance whatsoever for the type of allegations raised in this investigation.”
The district has postponed its football season, and coaching staff are currently on paid administrative leave, she said.
Kikuta did not respond to a request for comment.
