SENECA, Mo. —
The superintendent of the Seneca School District said Thursday night that an investigation into a hazing incident involving members of the high school football team is continuing.
Rick Cook said the district is waiting on information from three sources — the Crawford County (Kan.) attorney’s office; the Missouri Division of Family Services; and an outside audit of coaches, administrators and policies — before concluding its investigation.
Investigations
“Both the student and personnel investigations are still ongoing,” Cook said Thursday night during a break between the public and closed session of the school board’s regular meeting. “Even though discipline has been passed out (to the students), we feel like more information is needed to make sure what we’ve done is justified.”
Cook said that at least 11 players received suspensions of 10, 90 and 180 days in connection with the hazing incident, in accordance with the district’s anti-hazing policy. He also said the district has received nine appeal requests from parents of students who were disciplined.
Cook also said that DFS conducted two days worth of interviews after the hazing incident, which took place June 10 and was reported to police by Seneca officials June 15. He said the district is still waiting on a report from the state agency.
Investigator’s report
The district also brought in Sarah Spence, an independent investigator from Columbia, to conduct interviews with the coaching staff, and to review the district’s policies and procedures in light of the hazing incident.
Cook said Spence was not in Seneca for Thursday’s meeting, but that her report had been given to the board to review. He declined to discuss specifics of the report, and indicated it would be discussed in closed session.
He said the district has no plans to cancel its football season this fall.
“We will go ahead and have our regular season,” he said. “I think we will still have a competitive team.”
The school board went into closed session Thursday night to discuss legal issues, including personnel and student disciplinary matters. The closed-door session was still under way after 10 p.m.
Board President Joe Caputo declined to comment before the meeting, but said the board planned to release a statement once it had all the information from the investigation.
Cook emerged from the closed-door session shortly before 10 p.m. He said then that the district’s lawyer would issue a statement today.
Asked whether any action was taken against any of the coaching staff, Cook said that did not happen.
At least 50 members of the Seneca football team were participating in a summer football camp at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University last month. The students were staying in a dormitory at PSU with at least some of the Seneca football coaching staff serving as chaperones.
According to a police report, upperclassmen on the team used curtain rods to strike 17 underclassmen. Some team members also placed their genitals on the faces of other players as part of the hazing.
Crawford County Attorney Michael Gayoso filed multiple felony charges of aggravated battery and misdemeanor charges of battery against eight players. Three other players were charged with a single count each of misdemeanor battery.
Only one of the suspects is 18, and is facing charges as an adult. Gayoso said Thursday that he expects the juvenile court to issue a ruling later this month on whether any of the juveniles will stand trial as adults.
Ineligible
Seneca Schools superintendent Rick Cook said Thursday that any student-athletes facing either felony or misdemeanor criminal charges are ineligible to participate in athletics, under the guidelines of the Missouri State High School Athletics Association. He said MSHAA allows players to become eligible once they have been cleared of any criminal charges, or have met obligations of any punishment meted out by a court.
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