Staff photo by Tim Barber The Hamilton County School Board Chairman Jonathan Welch, center, reads a prepared statement to an overflow crowd Wednesday night as School Superintendent Rick Smith, left, listens.It has taken two weeks for officials of Ooltewah High School and the Hamilton County Board of Education to take action after the Dec. 22 reported rape of a basketball player with a pool cue. And it has been two weeks too long.
The 15-year-old victim reportedly has told investigators that three other boys were abused and that “beatings ” were something done “on a regular basis” in the locker room as a hazing “ritual for freshmen.” One of the three older players who assaulted the victim also video recorded the incident, according to his aunt, who will not be identified by the Times Free Press to protect the victim’s identity.
Three Ooltewah players were charged with aggravated rape and aggravated assault by Gatlinburg Police – Gatlinburg because that’s where the team was, with coaches and chaperones, to play in a tournament.
But as tragic as this incident has been – the victim had to have surgery for a ruptured colon and bladder – local school officials are compounding it with what can only be described as a total failure of public communication and accountability.
For an entire two weeks, school system administration officials have – outrageously – made no statement of reassurance or mea culpa or even asserted a plan for the future to reexamine the existing school policies about hazing – the ones that clearly failed here. Instead they are hiding behind “ongoing investigation” excuses.