Ooltewah High School. (Google Maps)
A Tennessee high school has canceled its boys basketball team’s season after three players were charged with raping a teammate with a pool stick while at a December tournament.
The season was canceled Wednesday amid an outcry from the community and some school board members, the Associated Press reports. The team played four games after the alleged assault occurred.
“This decision is not a reflection upon the coaching staff,” Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith told the AP. “Indeed, law enforcement officials have to date found no evidence any adult acted improperly. Likewise, this decision is not meant to punish the boys on the team who are innocent of any wrongdoing and simply want to play high school sports.”
The teens were charged with aggravated sexual assault by police in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where the assaults allegedly. Their names have not been released because they are juveniles, police said.
The victim says the assault was recorded on a cell phone.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Victim Suffered a Ruptured Colon & Bladder
Police have released few details about the case, because the suspects have been charged as juveniles.
The Ooltewah High School basketball team was at the Smoky Mountain Classic basketball tournament on December 22 when the rape is alleged to have occurred, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. The team and three chaperones were staying at a rented cabin on Laurel Mountain Road in Gatlinburg.
The alleged rape occurred in the basement of the cabin while the chaperones were not present.
Sources told the Times Free Press that the boy was injured when a pool stick was forced into his rectum, puncturing his colon. The tip of the cue broke off in the boy’s bladder, the sources told the newspaper.
He was taken to a local hospital for treatment and then was taken back to the cabin. His condition worsened and he returned to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.
The 15-year-old boy is now recovering at home, his grandmother told CNN.
“He’s gained his appetite so he’s eating now. His spirits are good. He is still wearing a bag and catheter [that] we’re hoping the doctor will remove next week. He’s still having nightmares and doesn’t like being alone,” she said.
The three arrested players were kicked off the team and suspended from school, officials say.
2. Officials Are Investigating Whether the Beatings Given to Freshmen Were a ‘Ritual’ at the School
The Ooltewah High School gym. (Ooltewah High School)
The victim has claimed that three other players were assaulted during the trip to Gatlinburg.
Sources told WRCB-TV the alleged assault was part of a Ooltewah High School ritual, where freshmen were “beaten in” to the team.
The older players told the younger teammates the beatings “must be done,” WRCB reports. The beatings allegedly occurred in the locker room at the school as well, with the lights turned off.
“Horseplay is one thing, to ram an object in someone’s rectum is to cause harm,” the mother of one of the victims told the Times Free Press. “It’s not regular behavior.”
3. The Player’s Mother Says the Coach Was Warned About the Abuse by the Victm
The mother of one of the other boys allegedly beaten during the hazing ritual told the Times Free Press that the rape victim told his coach about the abuse that was going on. She says the coach then told the older boys to stop “bullying” the younger players, which led to the more serious assault on the boy who reported them, the newspaper reports.
The school district has said they believe all proper procedures were followed and coach is not to blame. Family members of the victim have called for the coach to be suspended, along with the school’s athletic director and an assistant coach, the Times Free Press reported.
The family also asked for the season to be canceled. Four games were played following the assault arrests, including a game one day after the rape allegedly occurred.
“How have we gotten to this point?” school board member Rhonda Thurman asked in an interview with the newspaper. “It’s heart-wrenching to me this boy could have died. I’m not holding the team responsible for the actions of three. “I’m holding the whole team responsible because somebody did not come to this boy’s defense.”
She said ending the season sends a message that hazing will not be tolerated.
4. An Attorney for the Team’s Coach Says He Has Been ‘Vilified’ & Been the Target of a ‘Witchhunt’
Ooltewah High School basketball coach Andre Montgomery. (Ooltewah High School)
The Ooltewah team is coached by Andre “Tank” Montgomery, who has been a coach for three years at the school, including two as head coach. He is also a physical education teacher at the school.
His attorney, Curtis L. Bowe III, released a lengthy statement saying his client has been the victim of a “witchhunt”, has been “villified” and has been the target of racial slurs. Read the full statement below:
Physical coercion and sexual assault are unacceptable in any setting and have no place at Ooltewah High School. The criminal allegations against three members of our men’s basketball team, if verified, will warrant very serious penalties. The facts are not yet public; however, there is a plethora of speculation and vilification, based on inaccurate reporting of the central events. Charges have been filed, and in our system of law, individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Everyone involved is cooperating to the fullest with the police and administrative inquiry while we wait to learn the truth from the facts.
Whatever that inquiry may show, it is already clear that three athletes acted in a manner inappropriate to a fellow Ooltewah team member by participating in the conduct as alleged by the Gatlinburg Police Department.
Athletics Director Jesse Nayadley and Principal James Jarvis are greatly appreciated for appropriately responding to the conduct in question even as we wait for the investigation to determine the truth despite inaccurate reports of the events from those who were not present or otherwise are misinformed. Their example in remaining calm and avoiding knee jerk responses is critical to obtaining justice for the alleged victim, alleged perpetrators and should bolster the confidence of the Ooltewah family – school board members, community members, students, administrators, coaches, parents, and athletes alike.
While no restriction exists to limit individual comment on issues, particularly where there exists no connection to Ooltewah or its athletics programs, others in elected positions are limited in fueling any debate as to the fate of an HCDE employee but fail to observe their restriction. HCDE policies are clear: Article III, Section 3, 1.106 specifically requires Board Members to refrain from publicly criticizing employees. Further 1.202, Paragraph 8 requires a Board Member to abstain from individual counsel and action with regard to an employee and 1.400, p. 2, lines 9 – 15 prohibits comments about an employee during an open meeting and explains the rationale as to the prohibition.
To speculate, assume, or spin personal views designed to further political careers, or initiate an effort to have an employee dismissed through the start of a witch hunt, is improper and defamatory at best; and as a result, it is imperative that we all recognize that the issue affecting our community is not hazing or bullying. Rather, it is the unilateral decision of three individuals currently charged with a sexual offense. Sexual offenses must not be reduced to popular buzz words like hazing or bullying. Ever.
More importantly, it is critical to our community as a whole and to our injured player that everyone understand that there is no culture of sexual assault at Ooltewah. Similarly, there is no culture of hazing or abuse at Ooltewah where athletes are encouraged or taught to violate the law (or even simple human decency) by teachers, administrators or coaches.As alleged, this is a terrible and shameful act perpetrated by three individuals.
To date, Coach Andre Montgomery has been vilified, subjected to racial epithets and slurs as well as hyper-scrutinized in spite of responding appropriately. Such witch hunting is unacceptable; especially where all HCDE protocols and HCDE policies were followed. And most importantly, the three actors are to be held accountable for their decision. Not someone else.
Our community does not and should not condone ascribing blame for someone else’s conduct. Yet, that is what most commenting have done. Everyone needs to stop – even those charged with being impartial and unbiased as members of the HCDE School Board – asserting that someone else has to lose their job because they are responsible for the actions of three.
Coach Montgomery’s entire life has been about children and their welfare. He chose to become a coach furthering his passion for children and their development. This act by three individuals against one of their own is inconsistent with what Coach Montgomery knows of them – in the classroom and in the athletic arena.
However, while out of character, this act is neither acceptable nor excusable and certainly not condoned by Coach Montgomery.
The act of three individuals should not diminish Coach Montgomery’s reputation or his valuable contributions to Ooltewah High School, the Ooltewah student body or its athletics programs. The justice system will resolve our community’s injured player’s issues, not public sentiment. Thank you.
Montgomery has not been suspended or otherwise disciplined.
5. School Officials Say the Alleged Assault Is Not Being ‘Swept Under the Rug’
During a special school board meeting called Wednesday night, the school board said officials will not be able to answer questions about the case because of a “gag order.” The chairman added that police have asked them to stay out of the way and not do an internal investigation.
“The public is looking for answers and, unfortunately, we won’t have any tonight,” Chairman Jonathan Welch said, according to the Times Free Press.
But Welch said the case is not being “swept under the rug.”
More than 120 alumni have signed a letter asking for an outside attorney to investigate the incident, according to the Associated Press.
“We depend on you to create the right atmosphere for students. Instead of burying this incident of rape and assault, we ask that you address it head-on and as transparently as possible within the confines of the law,” the wrote in the letter.
“I actually was looking for a little more answers, a little more status of the investigation,” Amanda DeFriese, an alumna who signed the letter and attended the meeting, told the AP.”I know they can’t discuss law enforcement, but it would be nice to have at least more transparency.”
