Officials in Kirkland, Washington,?announced Friday that five Juanita High School football players will be charged with the attempted rape of a special needs student as part of a hazing ritual. The accused players are 14 and 15 years old.
Witnesses told police that the assault took place on October 22 when the football players lured a 17-year-old special education student into a locker room, held him down in a shower, removed his pants, and attempted to sodomize him with a broom handle several times. A report filed by police with the court alleges:
“One witness stated that ?there was no doubt that [one of the teens] was trying to stick the broom [in the student’s] rectum and there was no way that this was an accident and no way this wasn’t planned.'”
Students who witnessed the assault also told investigators that one of the attackers recorded the incident on a cell phone. Other students saw the attack and broke up the scene, according to court documents.
All of the players, who were part of the freshmen football team at Juanita High, were expelled from school. They will appear in court on February 20 and could either be sentenced to time at a juvenile rehabilitation facility or charged as adults and be incarcerated at a local detention facility.
The local school district issued the following statement when the attack became public on Friday:
“Five?students were charged with attempted rape in the second degree of another student. The possibility that an incident of this nature could occur at Juanita High School has been devastating to this school and our community.?Districtwide, the coach training program is being revised to ensure that locker room supervision expectations are very clear.”
