That thunderous thud you may have heard Thursday afternoon was the other shoe finally dropping in the Ooltewah High School sexual assault case concerning what three of the school’s older basketball players allegedly did to four of their freshman teammates.
And if Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston’s filed charges are proven true that Owls basketball coach Andre “Tank” Montgomery, assistant coach Karl Williams and Ooltewah athletic director Jesse Nayadley failed to report child abuse or suspected child sexual abuse, that symbolic shoe could make Shaquille O’Neal’s size-23 sneakers look like baby booties.
As first reported by this newspaper’s Kendi Anderson on our website, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department detective Mickey Roundtree wrote of his investigation: “Four freshman basketball players were subjected to assaultive behavior, including but not limited to being struck with pool cues and also these four freshman basketball players were subjected to apparent sexual assault.”
Read that again: “Four freshman basketball players were subjected to “
Not one, as previously reported, though there is no mention from Roundtree that more than one of those players was raped by having a pool cue shoved up his rectum. Four. Roundtree mentioned four freshmen, their lives quite probably forever altered by a single event that possibly could have been prevented by more cautious, hands-on adults.