Maine's Brunswick High School has ended its football season three games early and its head football coach was fired after a school district investigation into a hazing incident.
A letter from the Brunswick School Department’s superintendent, Dr. Phillip Potenziano, that was published on the district’s website on Wednesday explains the district took action following a weekslong investigation that, according to school documents prepared by outside investigators, revealed allegations of bullying, harassment and hazing involving student-athletes during a pre-season team retreat this August.
The documents also suggest sexualized hazing occurred.
School administrators concluded that Brunswick could not safely field a team and continue playing a season.
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"We cannot stress enough that any retaliation, bullying, harassment, or other attempt to threaten or intimidate anyone, to pressure someone about what to say or not say, to shun someone for participating in the investigation, or to interfere in the investigation in any way whatsoever will not be tolerated,” said Potenziano in a recent letter in response to the incident, prior to the communication published on Wednesday.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Brunswick police have now opened their own investigation into the hazing.
That investigation will determine if something illegal occurred.
