Students charged in hazing sexual assault with broom handle on ‘no gay Thursday’
Three high school football players have been charged after allegedly sexually assaulting a student with a broom handle.
Beware the below story contains graphic imagery
The players, at Conestoga High School, named Thursdays ‘No-Gay Thursday’, and often performed hazing rituals on other students.
However one Thursday last October, three senior students assaulted a freshman with a broom handle, after pinning him down.
Prosecutors in the case said the three seniors weighed over a combined 400 pounds, reports Philly.com.
They pinned him down whilst penetrating him with a broom handle.
Thomas P. Hogan, the Chester County district attorney, prosecuting, noted that the victim is 5 foot 7 inches tall, weighing only 160 pounds.
At the time, the three seniors, aged 17, were charged with assault, unlawful restraint and making terroristic threats.
They were charged as juveniles.
According to Hogan, the three men were not charged with sexual offences, because “from our perspective, it’s a physical assault and not a sex crime.”
The crime was reported to the school last month after the victim told his father.
Hogan said the victim was not left with long-lasting physical damage, but that he suffered psychological effects of the attack.
The prosecutor put the assault down to “ignorance, violence, and a lack of supervision.”
He went on to say that ‘No Gay Thursday’ had taken place for several years.
Other than the assault, seniors would often make freshmen strip to their underwear and clean the locker room.
They would also put their genitals on the heads of the younger students, and grind their bodies against their legs, he went on.
In a letter on Friday, the district said the school’s football coach John Vogan had been suspended.
The coaches claimed to have not been aware of the hazing.
