We have a few questions for every parent in Hamilton County – or anywhere, for that matter.
If someone shoves a pool cue into your private parts while two other people hold you down, is it horseplay or is it violent rape?
And if someone does this to your child – while two schoolmates hold him or her down – is it horseplay or is it violent rape?
If this happens on a school trip with coaches and chaperones in the same building, after your child already has asked one of those adults for help and protection, can you honestly ever have any interest in trusting this school or school system with any part of your child’s life ever again?
The likely answers to these questions seem damning enough. But in Hamilton County, school documents and police reports obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press in the aftermath of a 15-year-old Ooltewah basketball player’s Dec. 22 alleged rape with a pool cue at the hands of three teammates on a school tournament trip to Gatlinburg shows such “horseplay” has been the culture rather than the exception.