Reported hazing incident involving Damascus High School JV Football team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jack Smith simply needs to go. He will not protect the children from predators.

He looks like he’s dying. All the administrators in MCPS seem to fall apart on the job. They age tremendously, go gray, gain weight, look haggard. These are joyless positions. I agree they need new blood throughout the system. I was speaking to a colleague in MCPS the other day and she was telling me that all the principals she knows go home and cry. Men, women, all of them. They are literally crying all the time. Something is very wrong when half the leadership just wants to make it to June, or to retirement in six years or whatever, and yet they don’t have the balls to stand up to the system that’s destroying them and hurting students too..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jack Smith simply needs to go. He will not protect the children from predators.

He looks like he’s dying. All the administrators in MCPS seem to fall apart on the job. They age tremendously, go gray, gain weight, look haggard. These are joyless positions. I agree they need new blood throughout the system. I was speaking to a colleague in MCPS the other day and she was telling me that all the principals she knows go home and cry. Men, women, all of them. They are literally crying all the time. Something is very wrong when half the leadership just wants to make it to June, or to retirement in six years or whatever, and yet they don’t have the balls to stand up to the system that’s destroying them and hurting students too..

MCPS is just a broken, dysfunctional school system. Was hoping for change with the last election, and was sad that there was none.

[Anonymous]

"MCPS is just a broken, dysfunctional school system."

+1. Cannot believe has didn't roll over what happened in Damascus. Cannot believe they're still allowed to play football. Cannot believe Kevin Sullivan, Jack Smith, Andrew Zuckerman, still have jobs. WTF!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"MCPS is just a broken, dysfunctional school system."

+1. Cannot believe has didn't roll over what happened in Damascus. Cannot believe they're still allowed to play football. Cannot believe Kevin Sullivan, Jack Smith, Andrew Zuckerman, still have jobs. WTF!

Jeff Sullivan, MCPS System-Wide Athletic Director, has covered up serious problems of abuse at other high schools. Damascus just happened to make the news cycle, national and international (BBC). He runs athletics like his own little kingdom. The school ADs answer to him and operate their athletic programs under different rules than the rest of the school system that lack adherence to policies and protections for students against abuse.

Jack Smith has actively worked to manipulate and interfere with police investigations to the point officers could not make an arrest. He has failed to report abuse before victims and witnesses have been interviewed by MCPS. It's not a coincidence that the Damascus principal interviewed the entire JV Football team BEFORE the police.

Andrew Zuckerman tries to clean up messes in MCPS and he is the puppet master for Jack Smith. He is cunning and manipulative. For any bad decisions he makes, he sets up others to take the fall including Jack Smith.

Donna Hollingshead - Director of Compliance. What happened to the victims of Damascus was a Title IX violation. Has she informed the JV football team of their rights under Title IX? What the heck is she doing to improve the safety of students in MCPS schools? Why hasn't she cleaned up the mess in MCPS Athletics? She has spouted about great initiatives over the last two years to protect students from child abuse, however, she has failed to implement policies at the school level or even personally fix issues when problems have been reported.

BTW - what is the process to report child abuse in MCPS after you have contacted Child Protective Services and the police? What is the magic form to get supports and protections for your child after you find out your child was abused? In three years since the Board of Education has passed their policy on Child Abuse and Neglect, MCPS has failed to come up with the form and process to follow to help the victims of abuse that are in its schools.

All of the above people need to go. Most of the Board needs to go because they know of cases of child abuse that the victims were re victimized by MCPS's indifference to fixing the situation. There needs to be systemwide improvements or children will keep being abused in MCPS. There needs to be accountability when abuse occurs to fire / expelled those who hurt children and fire employees who failed to protect the victims.

[Anonymous]

I think this is just a side effect of being such a large school system. Very hard to make changes. And nobody gets accountable.

Not great for the kids at all. And infuriating to watch as a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ring leader was expelled from Clarksburg.

If he was expelled from one pubic high school, then why was he at another public high school? What was the offense he was expelled for at Clarksburg?

MCPS is required to educate all kids. This has come up in other cases. They probably had to put him somewhere.

The other 3 students charged had been in the Damascus cluster since elementary school. Not a case of some outsiders coming in. Damascus needs to come to terms with this instead of shifting blame to "others." All over the Damascus community social media, people are saying it's not a Damascus problem and it's the fault of other people invading the community. So much denial. I went to DHS, so did my parents, and I used to hope that my kids would too. Now, well, maybe not so much.

[Anonymous]

The Blair Ewing center used to be where kids who are expelled would be reassigned to for their educational needs. It doesn't have a football team though and there have been budget cuts for this type of service. It was cheaper for MCPS to transfer a student to Damascus HS then to send him to a special program like Blair Ewing. But why grant him an athletic waiver with the transfer?

The student who was transferred from Clarksburg was the ring leader for that group of kids. It was his idea that raping kids was a fun team bonding experience.

MCPS is broken system wide. You can choose a different cluster to live in other than Damascus but it doesn't mean your children will be any safer. There are no safe schools in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Blair Ewing center used to be where kids who are expelled would be reassigned to for their educational needs. It doesn't have a football team though and there have been budget cuts for this type of service. It was cheaper for MCPS to transfer a student to Damascus HS then to send him to a special program like Blair Ewing. But why grant him an athletic waiver with the transfer?

The student who was transferred from Clarksburg was the ring leader for that group of kids. It was his idea that raping kids was a fun team bonding experience.

MCPS is broken system wide. You can choose a different cluster to live in other than Damascus but it doesn't mean your children will be any safer. There are no safe schools in MCPS.

This, sadly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"MCPS is just a broken, dysfunctional school system."

+1. Cannot believe has didn't roll over what happened in Damascus. Cannot believe they're still allowed to play football. Cannot believe Kevin Sullivan, Jack Smith, Andrew Zuckerman, still have jobs. WTF!

I am a harsh critic of MCPS, but they cannot do anything about criminal juvenile students. They cannot stop the crimes but they can - expel these students, work with the police, have tough standards for teachers and coaches so that they keep the children safe. Allow vetted parent volunteers to chaperone events in groups to have more accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
These kids were charged as adults because they found it to be first degree rape. First degree!!!! That means it was premeditated. It was planned. They planned to rape or attempt to rape. That is not group psychology or peer pressure. This was not a caught up in the moment event. There is enough evidence to show it was planned. I understand a 15 year old does not have a fully developed brain until after 21, but they do know right from wrong. Unfortunately, they made a choice to follow through with one of the worst crimes you can possibly commit. I feel for their parents. I feel for the victims and to be honest, I feel for those alleged rapists. They had so much potential and their whole lives ahead of them. In one minute, they made a choice which has basically ruined their lives and the lives of others.

No, that is the definition of first degree murder, not rape. For rape in MD, the MD Criminal Code says that any of the following make rape a first degree indictment that must be referred to the adult court system and not the juvenile court system:

https://maryland-criminallawyer.com/maryland-sex-crimes-lawyer/rape/laws/

MD Criminal Code, Section 3-303 wrote:

Use, brandish, or display a dangerous weapon or a physical object the victim reasonably believes is a dangerous weapon.

Inflict serious injury on the victim or another person while committing the rape. This also includes suffocating, strangling, or disfiguring the victim.

Threaten the victim, or otherwise put the victim in fear, that either the victim or another individual will be killed, strangled, suffocated, disfigured, or be subject to serious physical injury or kidnapping.

Rape the victim while assisted by another person.

Rape the victim as part of a first, second, or third degree burglary.

The bolded are the reasons that this was first degree rape and referred to the adult court system. The perpetrators acted as a group, and they came into the locker room banging the broomstick on walls and lockers, e.g. brandishing it like a club. They pushed, punched, kicked and stomped on the victims while stripping them of their clothes. All of these make this a first degree felony crime in the state of MD and force the case to the adult court system. It wasn't a choice to charge them as adults, it is written into state procedures that first degree felony rape must be sent to the adult court system. The judge can opt to waive down the case back to the juvenile court system, but it must be reviewed by a judge in the adult court system first.

As for MCPS and Damascus, they should have called it what it was and it wasn't hazing. It is an absolute disgrace that they referred to it as hazing. It was rape. Sending out a video was a piss poor way to deal with any of this. Use peer pressure to make a change. Suspend the whole team for a game, two or a season for anyone caught hazing or bullying. These kids know what is going on. There is talk about what is going to happen. However, parents don't want their poor little Randy to suffer for someone else's actions. Well, maybe if Randy knew that the actions of his teammates affects him as well, he would step up and prevent nonsense like this or tell someone so it can be prevented.

I agree. While I agree the intent was to haze, this goes far beyond hazing. Hazing does not include a crime, let alone a felony crime. Once it goes into felony assault, battery, kidnapping, rape or other similar crimes, then it has passed out of hazing and into violent crime. Hazing does not include felony crime. If your definition of hazing includes any of these, then I think you need to revisit your definitions and do a little moral self-reflection. For those who don't agree, the state attorney for Montgomery County, John McCarthy, agrees with me:

https://www.vladtv.com/article/250298/4-high-school-football-players-indicted-for-raping-freshman-with-broomstick

State Attorney for Montgomery County John McCarthy warned against calling this a hazing incident, however. He told reporters, "I would caution anyone to refer to this as hazing, [...] These boys were victims of criminal acts. They were not victims of hazing. They were victims of first-degree rapes and attempted rapes. These were crimes."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I agree. While I agree the intent was to haze, this goes far beyond hazing. Hazing does not include a crime, let alone a felony crime. Once it goes into felony assault, battery, kidnapping, rape or other similar crimes, then it has passed out of hazing and into violent crime. Hazing does not include felony crime. If your definition of hazing includes any of these, then I think you need to revisit your definitions and do a little moral self-reflection. For those who don't agree, the state attorney for Montgomery County, John McCarthy, agrees with me:

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Sure it does. It even includes manslaughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/01/us/florida-am-band-member-is-convicted-in-hazing-death.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/magazine/what-a-fraternity-hazing-death-revealed-about-the-painful-search-for-an-asian-american-identity.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ring leader was expelled from Clarksburg.

If he was expelled from one pubic high school, then why was he at another public high school? What was the offense he was expelled for at Clarksburg?

MCPS is required to educate all kids. This has come up in other cases. They probably had to put him somewhere.

The other 3 students charged had been in the Damascus cluster since elementary school. Not a case of some outsiders coming in. Damascus needs to come to terms with this instead of shifting blame to "others." All over the Damascus community social media, people are saying it's not a Damascus problem and it's the fault of other people invading the community. So much denial. I went to DHS, so did my parents, and I used to hope that my kids would too. Now, well, maybe not so much.

Damascus does need to take some responsibility. The sports culture is the worst I've seen in the entire county; and I'm not referring to football. Zero sportsmanship from players or coaches. It's a team mentality that starts at the top.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth do ANY OF THE COACHES still have jobs?
The JV coach should have been fired, but if the school system doesn’t have the balls to do that, he would have enough decency to STEP DOWN!
I was a coach for 20 years. If my athletes attacked their teammates in any way, I would feel responsible as it is my program and I would step down.
Damascus is gross. That whole community should be ashamed that they are protecting those coaches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do ANY OF THE COACHES still have jobs?
The JV coach should have been fired, but if the school system doesn’t have the balls to do that, he would have enough decency to STEP DOWN!
I was a coach for 20 years. If my athletes attacked their teammates in any way, I would feel responsible as it is my program and I would step down.
Damascus is gross. That whole community should be ashamed that they are protecting those coaches.

MCPS has coaches who have personally hurt children and weren't fired. There's a lot MCPS lets coaches get away with and they do nothing to protect students.

If the MCPS verbage is, "this is a personnel matter so we can't disclose information regarding a personnel investigation" that's MCPS lingo for we are planning on rehiring the coaches because they have promised to do better in the future.

At some point the media will die down, current seniors will graduate, and families will go on summer vacations. If you aren't told before this time who the new coaches are or there's not ads for new coaches, the current principal renewed the contracts. As a school, parents need to ban together to protest so that doesn't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why on earth do ANY OF THE COACHES still have jobs?
The JV coach should have been fired, but if the school system doesn’t have the balls to do that, he would have enough decency to STEP DOWN!
I was a coach for 20 years. If my athletes attacked their teammates in any way, I would feel responsible as it is my program and I would step down.
Damascus is gross. That whole community should be ashamed that they are protecting those coaches.

It's not just Damascus. And, it's not just coaches. We've had teachers in MCPS sexually abusing students and the principals don't accept responsibility. Let alone coaches. It's a systemic problem.