Emails released by the Hamilton County Board of Education shed new light on the administration's December response to then-emerging allegations that a trio of Ooltewah High School basketball players sexually assaulted a teammate.
Reports began to emerge just before Christmas that an Ooltewah basketball player was sexually assaulted by several teammates, leading to injuries so severe that he had to be hospitalized.
The assault took place on Dec. 22, and Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith alerted the board two days later on Christmas Eve that the attack had taken place.
"Sorry to send you a work related message on Christmas eve but I want to let you know of a serious matter involving Ooltewah High basketball students while out of town at a holiday basketball tournament," Smith wrote. "It has been reported that [three] players physically assaulted one of their teammates and are being investigated and may be charged. I don't have much information at this point but know that the victim was injured and required surgery. He is expected to fully recover. I will make you aware as additional information becomes available."
In the days since, investigators have reported that not one, but four players were sexually assaulted by their teammates during the trip to Gatlinburg, a practice that some reports have pegged as part of a larger trend of disorderly conduct, hazing and bad behavior among the players.
By Monday, Dec. 28, the situation had escalated for administrators. Reporters were calling. The public had questions. And school board members wanted to know more.
School board member Rhonda Thurman sent an email to Smith saying she was "totally outraged," and promised to reccomend that the rest of the team's season be canceled.
"While I know the three team members involved were put off the team, were the other team members not within earshot to know something was going on?," Thurman asked in an email send Monday afternoon. "Did anyone offer to intervene, either by physically going to their teammate's aid, going to get help from the coach or using their cellphone to call for help?"
Thurman closed by saying that "the truth, as ugly as it may be, needs to be dealt with in the open by this elected body. I am deeply saddened, disturbed and disgusted by this incident and will not allow it to [be] swept under the rug because it happened over the holiday."
Despite Thurman's private statement to Smith and the other board members, the board's first public meeting after the news of the assault broke was marked both by its brevity and by the lack of information revealed to the gathered crowd. The board claimed it was operating under a gag order, though an official gag order which was later found not to exist.
The board subsequently declined to offer new details because of what it said were requests from law enforcement officials not to comment on an ongoing investigation.
In response to Thurman's earlier email, board member Donna Horn said she hoped that "we hear a report about what actually transpired, responsible parties, adult and students, that were present at this tournament before the media does."
Smith eventually transferred the team's coach to job at the book depository, though he said it was not an indication of wrongdoing, and did not represent a punishment or penalty.
However, Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston this week charged the team's head coach, assistant coach and Ooltewah High School's athletic director with failing to report child abuse.