Teens charged with forcible touching in the locker room hazing incident need to learn a lesson, but school parents say arresting them and sending them to court goes too far.
“Did they get arrested for that?” one parent at Brooklyn's James Madison High School told the Post on Tuesday. “They shouldn't be arrested for that. They can be disciplined, but they won't be arrested.
“I think that's overkill,” he said. “No one was hurt, no one was sodomized. That's what boys do, that's what athletes do in the locker room.”
Three teens were arraigned in Brooklyn Family Court on Friday on charges of forcible touching and false imprisonment, two days after they allegedly pinned down a 14-year-old victim, removed his pants and punched the boy twice in the penis, authorities said. He was indicted.
The incident reportedly forced the team to cancel the season and one of the coaches lost his job.
But the father of one of the accused teens told the Post this week that the incident was nothing more than “horseplay” and that the hazing ritual was just “gasp” and that several of the players said that it was done.
Most parents interviewed outside the Midwood campus on Tuesday seemed to agree.
Another parent said, “I don't think it's necessary to go that far.'' “But you have to have some kind of discipline. I think it was definitely horseplay… But clearly there's a problem going on.”
Pierre Renold, whose son is a second-year student at the school, said the school should have responded within the school.
“We have to find out exactly what's going on because we don't want these three to have a bad record,” he said. “If you take it to court and the judge decides you're wrong, you'll have a bad criminal record. The school should have acted. They shouldn't have taken it to court.
“If the student continues to have bad grades later on, it will affect his chances of getting into university, etc. The incident was not serious enough for the court to get involved, and the school could have handled it,” he said.
But not all parents interviewed agreed, with some saying their teens got what they deserved.
“They should never fool around like that. I really don't think that's right,” said one of Madison's mothers. “It happened too much. The right thing to do was to go to family court. This was more than just a prank. I don't think it should have happened at all. It crossed a line.
“It causes trauma and things like that for the kids.”
James Madison city officials referred questions to the city's Department of Education, which has not received any comment since issuing a statement Sunday.
“Bullying and harassment (including harassment) have no place in our schools, and rightfully so,” a previous statement said. “Upon hearing reports of clouding, the school took immediate action. Parents were immediately notified, the school provided support and an investigation is ongoing.”
