Reported hazing incident involving Damascus High School JV Football team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear they could face life in prison if found guilty.
That is not appropriate for a 15 year old. It is not like someone died

even if your own kid had been a rape victim?

same sentiment, PP?

A child should absolutely not be sentenced to life in prison. Wanting revenge against a person who raped ones child doesn't change that.

What is wrong with our country that so many people think it's OK to sentence a child to die in prison? We are the only country that does that. We also have the worlds highest incarceration rate. Clearly, we are doing something wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What I want to know is CONTEXT: whether one or more of the perpetrators had the same thing done to them, whether one or more had a history of violence, psychological problems, etc...

It will not excuse anything, but it would some way to make sense out of this horrible act.

And I hold the coaches and school responsible to some degree for fostering a hostile atmosphere on the team. I want to see some heads rolling.

Context is everything. The possible circumstances you mention can help decide in what court they should be tried, prospects for rehabilitation, how to balance the needs of the community with the needs of the child, what treatment they should receive, length of sentence, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The football program needs to be shut down for a year. They need to send a clear message that hazing of any sort is not tolerated. That it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and to work to prevent it. Maybe the loss of a school year of football will convince them.

YES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The football program needs to be shut down for a year. They need to send a clear message that hazing of any sort is not tolerated. That it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and to work to prevent it. Maybe the loss of a school year of football will convince them.

YES

I don't know if the football program should be shut down for a year, but definitely the whole athletics program in Montgomery County should be reviewed and strengthen measures for student safety. The football coaches should be fired at Damascus HS for lack of supervision. The police should look hard into whether or not this was a ritual and prosecute anyone who has committed rape in the past. Finally, the victims should sue MCPS for damages and failure to protect them in the school.

[Anonymous]

Just because the maximum penalty is life in prison doesn’t mean the youths would get that. I think the Supreme Court ruled against mandatory life-in-prison sentences for juveniles (remember the case in Jacksonville FL where a 14 year old killed his neighbor and received a mandatory life sentence - after the Supreme Court decision he had another sentencing hearing. (Was resentenced to life though)).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The football program needs to be shut down for a year. They need to send a clear message that hazing of any sort is not tolerated. That it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and to work to prevent it. Maybe the loss of a school year of football will convince them.

What about the kids that are on the team and was out of the practice field when the event happened? Do we punish those kids as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The football program needs to be shut down for a year. They need to send a clear message that hazing of any sort is not tolerated. That it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and to work to prevent it. Maybe the loss of a school year of football will convince them.

What about the kids that are on the team and was out of the practice field when the event happened? Do we punish those kids as well?

Yes. The point is to make an object lesson that hazing is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it. Also, no one should cover it up should they hear someone planning it. They need to turn the miscreants in before the act happens. And this also helps to ostracize those who do it, because they will be the ones responsible for everyone losing their privilege. It's not cool to be the ones hazing, it's foul and they should be considered lepers, not heroes.

Right now, there are a few who think this is cool or the thing to do, but there are a ton of people who just turn a blind eye or ignore it if it happens. That atmosphere of "boys will be boys" or ignoring the issue by those who happen to overhear the kids planning it but don't want to get involved, etc all needs to be very soundly discouraged. I guarantee you that among the athletes and families, there are a lot of people who believe one of those two situations and just let this happen. It should be driven home that complacency is also a problem and should be discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The football program needs to be shut down for a year. They need to send a clear message that hazing of any sort is not tolerated. That it is everyone's responsibility to be aware and to work to prevent it. Maybe the loss of a school year of football will convince them.

What about the kids that are on the team and was out of the practice field when the event happened? Do we punish those kids as well?

Yes. The point is to make an object lesson that hazing is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it. Also, no one should cover it up should they hear someone planning it. They need to turn the miscreants in before the act happens. And this also helps to ostracize those who do it, because they will be the ones responsible for everyone losing their privilege. It's not cool to be the ones hazing, it's foul and they should be considered lepers, not heroes.

Right now, there are a few who think this is cool or the thing to do, but there are a ton of people who just turn a blind eye or ignore it if it happens. That atmosphere of "boys will be boys" or ignoring the issue by those who happen to overhear the kids planning it but don't want to get involved, etc all needs to be very soundly discouraged. I guarantee you that among the athletes and families, there are a lot of people who believe one of those two situations and just let this happen. It should be driven home that complacency is also a problem and should be discouraged.

Then why cancel just football. The entire school athletics program should be cancelled to send a message to the entire school that this type of behavior is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it.

Maybe more draconian measures are needed. Cancel all sports and activities in the entire county for a year. This is a county wide issue and a strong message is needed to be used as a deterrent.

[Anonymous]

Did I hit a nerve when I said that if these players are black justice will not be completely served. Guarantee that is the truth. They will get house arrest if the blacks get behind this. So I guess I hit a nerve and that's why you took my posting down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Then why cancel just football. The entire school athletics program should be cancelled to send a message to the entire school that this type of behavior is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it.

Maybe more draconian measures are needed. Cancel all sports and activities in the entire county for a year. This is a county wide issue and a strong message is needed to be used as a deterrent.

Presumably because it was the football team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then why cancel just football. The entire school athletics program should be cancelled to send a message to the entire school that this type of behavior is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it.

Maybe more draconian measures are needed. Cancel all sports and activities in the entire county for a year. This is a county wide issue and a strong message is needed to be used as a deterrent.

Presumably because it was the football team.

True, but the football team is not the only sport that has a issue with hazing. Baseball and LAX have there fair share and incidents throughout the county.


I just do not think the kids that had nothing to do with this should be punished. Now if they had knowledge of the plans then perhaps they are co-conspirators and should talk to law enforcement but what about the freshman kids that had no idea about what was happening because they were on the practice field warming up. Do we remove a year of HS sports from them because their parents moved into the wrong school district. What did the innocent kids do to deserve loosing a year of HS athletics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then why cancel just football. The entire school athletics program should be cancelled to send a message to the entire school that this type of behavior is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it.

Maybe more draconian measures are needed. Cancel all sports and activities in the entire county for a year. This is a county wide issue and a strong message is needed to be used as a deterrent.

Presumably because it was the football team.

True, but the football team is not the only sport that has a issue with hazing. Baseball and LAX have there fair share and incidents throughout the county.

I just do not think the kids that had nothing to do with this should be punished. Now if they had knowledge of the plans then perhaps they are co-conspirators and should talk to law enforcement but what about the freshman kids that had no idea about what was happening because they were on the practice field warming up. Do we remove a year of HS sports from them because their parents moved into the wrong school district. What did the innocent kids do to deserve loosing a year of HS athletics?

The kids are not being punished. People are talking about canceling the football season, not about punishing kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then why cancel just football. The entire school athletics program should be cancelled to send a message to the entire school that this type of behavior is very, very wrong and that no one should even consider it.

Maybe more draconian measures are needed. Cancel all sports and activities in the entire county for a year. This is a county wide issue and a strong message is needed to be used as a deterrent.

Presumably because it was the football team.

True, but the football team is not the only sport that has a issue with hazing. Baseball and LAX have there fair share and incidents throughout the county.

I just do not think the kids that had nothing to do with this should be punished. Now if they had knowledge of the plans then perhaps they are co-conspirators and should talk to law enforcement but what about the freshman kids that had no idea about what was happening because they were on the practice field warming up. Do we remove a year of HS sports from them because their parents moved into the wrong school district. What did the innocent kids do to deserve loosing a year of HS athletics?

The kids are not being punished. People are talking about canceling the football season, not about punishing kids.

Canceling the football season is punishing the kids who love playing football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Canceling the football season is punishing the kids who love playing football.

No. They will be disappointed. But it's not punishing them.

[Anonymous]

Nah, they would put in for COSA and play at another school ?

Don't we all subscribe to the belief that MCPS doesn't believe in any actual consequences?