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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2019)
COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2019 | 7A Hazing from A1 locker room while an- other varsity member attempted to thrust a broomstick into the vic- tim’s rectum. The two varsity players then pulled the victim to the locker room floor, where one suspect held the victim down as the other contin- ued the same act with the broomstick. According to interviews conducted as part of the investigation, as well as information obtained by The Sentinel, it was deter- mined that no sex crime had been committed because the victim was wearing underwear and a football girdle during the incident, preventing actual penetration by the object. Citations to appear in court were issued Oct. 3 to both 15-year-old varsi- ty players for harassment, a charge which contains a subsection which de- scribes “offensive physical contact [which] consists of touching the sexual or other intimate parts of the other person.” The police department’s investigation was closed Oct. 4, and the case was passed on to Lane County Youth Services. According to Cottage Grove Police Chief Scott Shepherd, charges may be changed by the District Attorney’s office depend- ing on circumstances. In such a case, the Cottage Grove Police Department may likely be contacted for follow-up. As of press time on Oct. 28, there were no indications that the charges would be al- tered. Simultaneously, the South Lane School Dis- trict conducted its own investigation, which stretched back to the be- ginning of the sports sea- son, with no additional criminal acts reported by the district. However, a total of nine students re- ceived disciplinary action as a result of the investiga- tion — with at least some being suspensions. The school district said that a majority of these disci- plined students were not connected to the hazing report, but rather disci- plined for other behavior. At the most recent Cot- tage Grove football game on Oct. 25, a total of 14 players that had been on the Lions’ preseason ros- ter were no longer listed, however some were said by the school district to have moved away or quit for reasons unrelated to the hazing incident. Though the school dis- trict and the police de- partment have completed include the claim about the medical evaluation, but added that a mem- ber of the alleged victim’s family said the accused perpetrators also placed their genitalia on the boy “During the investigation, there was no evidence that this was a long-standing pattern of behavior.” — Brian McCasline, Interim Assist. Superintendent their investigations, some news reports and a con- sistent stream of online comments have given life to the worry that the in- vestigations were not ac- curate or comprehensive enough. A KEZI television re- port on Oct. 22 featured an anonymous “family friend” who stated that a “doctor had confirmed” that the victim had been sexually assaulted, lend- ing credence to the claim that the crime was more serious than investiga- tions concluded. However, an online ver- sion of the KEZI report that appeared later did not while they were holding him down. The Sentinel could not independently varify these claims. The Cottage Grove Po- lice Department has con- firmed with The Sentinel that no medical exam was administered to the victim as part of the in- vestigation, as would be protocol in the instance of a suspected sex crime. School district officials said they had no infor- mation on the claims regarding the medical evaluation or claims that the broomstick had been inserted into the victim’s rectum. If true, the allegations could constitute unlaw- ful sexual penetration, a Class B felony rather than a lesser Class A misde- meanor. In the aftermath of media reports, the Cot- tage Grove community expressed its shock and disbelief on social media, some making claims that the incident was more se- vere than was reported, including allegations that nude photos of other stu- dents had been distribut- ed. However, no mention of recording devices was reported in the criminal case according to the po- lice department. “Phones are not accept- able in the locker room,” said Interim Assistant Su- perintendent Brian Mc- Casline. “The phone issue did not come up in the investigation.” If such actions took place, they would like- ly constitute an invasion of personal privacy in the second degree, also a Class A misdemeanor. Culture of Harassment? The concerns raised by the community pose the question as to whether a culture of harassment exists in the high school’s locker room or football program. Information obtained by The Sentinel as part of its own investigation has suggested that varsi- ty members of the Cot- tage Grove High School football team this year habitually exposed them- selves in the locker room to younger junior varsi- ty members to make the junior members uncom- fortable. 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