Jeff Sullivan posted a letter to the community on twitter

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the Kojo show and MCPS representative basically just said that the details should not have been published in the paper, and that it all should have been handled privately so that people will still come forward in the future.

AKA a cover-up

And the representative said they were unaware of any hazing in Damascus. Now he's promoting the video.

Ridiculous, but par for the course in MCPS. They want to cover everything up, and pretend incidents never happened.

NOBODY has named the victims (as it should be). But, it is absolutely reasonable that this story gets media attention. Why would anyone not want the story published? How else can we hold MCPS accountable?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the Kojo show and MCPS representative basically just said that the details should not have been published in the paper, and that it all should have been handled privately so that people will still come forward in the future.

AKA a cover-up

And the representative said they were unaware of any hazing in Damascus. Now he's promoting the video.

MCPS Spokesman Derek Turner claimed the Washington Post article re victimized the victims. The Washington Post article kept the names of the victims private. It highlighted though how the students were unsupervised and the brutality of the assaults. There was enough time for 4 assaults to take place.

I also disagree with Derek Turner that MCPS will immediately deal with cases of bullying, abuse, and hazing brought to their attention. MCPS may have no problem of acting swiftly when students report on fellow students, but heaven forbid a student reports a coach for these things. MCPS does not enforce the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct and they will pressure students to not report or persuade the student to leave athletics all together. Hence why the video and message from the athletic department is aimed at students reporting students.

MCPS needs to look through a wider lens. What would possess 5 young teenage boys to sexually assault teammates as a ritual of belonging to a team? It starts with the adult leadership of those teams. What example are the adults setting for the students?

+100 The MCPS Athletics program needs a complete revamping and many coaches need to be cleared out. The MCPS AD is clueless and hapless.

To clean house, MCPS needs a new System-Wide Athletics Director. Jeff Sullivan came up through the ranks of the old athletic program. He is blind when problems are reported on teams. He treats students who report as liars and he shields his staff from any repercussions. Many of the bad athletic directors and coaches are his buddies. MCPS needs to hire someone from the outside who is well versed in how to promote a positive athletic culture and one that will act when bullying, abuse, and hazing is reported on teams.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the link to anonymously report school safety concerns in Maryland - http://safeschoolsmd.org/

Derrick Turner, Communications Director was the MCPS representative on the Kojo show.

Dan Morse with the Washington Post does a better job than Derek Turner in protecting sources. I am contacting him regarding a problem I reported to MCPS that they ignored. The whole Damascus incident may have been adverted if MCPS had acted sooner to improve the athletic climate including preventing bullying, abuse, and hazing on teams. The perpetrators are not always students.

Dan Morse: dan.morse@washingtonpost.com

Correct email address for Dan Morse: dan.morse@washpost.com

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the Kojo show and MCPS representative basically just said that the details should not have been published in the paper, and that it all should have been handled privately so that people will still come forward in the future.

AKA a cover-up

And the representative said they were unaware of any hazing in Damascus. Now he's promoting the video.

MCPS Spokesman Derek Turner claimed the Washington Post article re victimized the victims. The Washington Post article kept the names of the victims private. It highlighted though how the students were unsupervised and the brutality of the assaults. There was enough time for 4 assaults to take place.

I also disagree with Derek Turner that MCPS will immediately deal with cases of bullying, abuse, and hazing brought to their attention. MCPS may have no problem of acting swiftly when students report on fellow students, but heaven forbid a student reports a coach for these things. MCPS does not enforce the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct and they will pressure students to not report or persuade the student to leave athletics all together. Hence why the video and message from the athletic department is aimed at students reporting students.

MCPS needs to look through a wider lens. What would possess 5 young teenage boys to sexually assault teammates as a ritual of belonging to a team? It starts with the adult leadership of those teams. What example are the adults setting for the students?

+100 The MCPS Athletics program needs a complete revamping and many coaches need to be cleared out. The MCPS AD is clueless and hapless.

Anonymous wrote:
The Damascus head of athletics as well as the team coaches should be fired for their lack of supervision leading to crimes against students on school grounds.

Every single coach in MCPS should undergo training on how to be PROACTIVE about hazing rituals and assault. Neither are allowed by MCPS, according to the spokesperson who just responded to Kojo.

MCPS should publicly declare and enforce that coaches will be immediately fired if a student under their care is a victim of hazing or assault perpetrated by another student on the team.

I am with you on the firing the coaches when hazing or assault is reported on a team but realize MCPS doesn't even fire coaches who bully and abuse athletes. They also don't fire employees who fail to report abuse to law enforcement. The only reason MCPS produced a video and sent out a letter from Jeff Sullivan is because the Damascus case is in the media.

Anonymous wrote:Here is the link to anonymously report school safety concerns in Maryland - http://safeschoolsmd.org/

Derrick Turner, Communications Director was the MCPS representative on the Kojo show.

Dan Morse with the Washington Post does a better job than Derek Turner in protecting sources. I am contacting him regarding a problem I reported to MCPS that they ignored. The whole Damascus incident may have been adverted if MCPS had acted sooner to improve the athletic climate including preventing bullying, abuse, and hazing on teams. The perpetrators are not always students.

Dan Morse: dan.morse@washingtonpost.com

The Damascus head of athletics as well as the team coaches should be fired for their lack of supervision leading to crimes against students on school grounds.

Every single coach in MCPS should undergo training on how to be PROACTIVE about hazing rituals and assault. Neither are allowed by MCPS, according to the spokesperson who just responded to Kojo.

MCPS should publicly declare and enforce that coaches will be immediately fired if a student under their care is a victim of hazing or assault perpetrated by another student on the team.

Anonymous wrote:Listening to the Kojo show and MCPS representative basically just said that the details should not have been published in the paper, and that it all should have been handled privately so that people will still come forward in the future.

AKA a cover-up

And the representative said they were unaware of any hazing in Damascus. Now he's promoting the video.

MCPS Spokesman Derek Turner claimed the Washington Post article re victimized the victims. The Washington Post article kept the names of the victims private. It highlighted though how the students were unsupervised and the brutality of the assaults. There was enough time for 4 assaults to take place.

I also disagree with Derek Turner that MCPS will immediately deal with cases of bullying, abuse, and hazing brought to their attention. MCPS may have no problem of acting swiftly when students report on fellow students, but heaven forbid a student reports a coach for these things. MCPS does not enforce the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct and they will pressure students to not report or persuade the student to leave athletics all together. Hence why the video and message from the athletic department is aimed at students reporting students.

MCPS needs to look through a wider lens. What would possess 5 young teenage boys to sexually assault teammates as a ritual of belonging to a team? It starts with the adult leadership of those teams. What example are the adults setting for the students?

Here is the link to anonymously report school safety concerns in Maryland - http://safeschoolsmd.org/

Derrick Turner, Communications Director was the MCPS representative on the Kojo show.

Criminal "hazing" assault discussed on Kojo now WAMU 88.5

Caller right now saying that her son came forward about a coach's abuse at another MCPS high school - point being, if coaches are cognizant of such happenings and enablers, students will be afraid to come forward and the problem will not go away.

Listening to the Kojo show and MCPS representative basically just said that the details should not have been published in the paper, and that it all should have been handled privately so that people will still come forward in the future.

AKA a cover-up

And the representative said they were unaware of any hazing in Damascus. Now he's promoting the video.

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. I guess I’m not typing clearly.

The victims (& their parents) get a choice if they, *themselves* want to leave the school.

The perps do not get a choice. It is solely determined at the private hearing.

I hope MCPS does the right thing this time with the Damascus students. My child was not protected. My child was forced to leave his school to be separated from his abusers. The trauma caused PTSD that made it impossible for him to go into the school building knowing he would see the people who hurt him. MCPS didn't understand or care.

Ugh. I guess I’m not typing clearly.

The victims (& their parents) get a choice if they, *themselves* want to leave the school.

The perps do not get a choice. It is solely determined at the private hearing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football is KING at Damascus HS. I won't be terribly surprised if those involved in this crime aren't dealt with as strongly as they would if this had taken place at another school.

I hope that if this has been going on in the past, people will come forth and report it. But, Damascus is a close-knit small town, and unfortunately, it's much more difficult to come forward when you fear that everyone will find out that you are the one who revealed the big secret.

The crimes themselves are out of the school's hands. The case is entirely up to MoCo detectives/prosecutors. Including the investigation of the varsity team and its history.

At the MCPS level (not at the school level) they will remove the accused from the team (for the season for sure, maybe for their HS career), suspend them for 10 days and then have an administrative hearing to see if they can come back to the school, or go to Blair Ewing. The victims will have the option to change high schools before the accused are allowed to return to school.

Why should the victims have to leave the school at all???????????

How about the perpetrators never be allowed to return!

The victims get a choice. That’s the difference.

MCPS determines if the perpetrators get to return.

Even if the perps do not return to DHS, it sounds like there may be more victims and peeps from previous years.

Do you honestly think the victims have a choice if the boys that raped them with a broomstick return to Damascus HS? The victims have been traumatized. They need protection including separation from the rapists so they can continue with school.