Pennsylvania State Police are investigating whether potential crimes were committed when three older football players confronted a younger player in a locker room at Williams Valley Junior/Senior High School this month.
The senior players on the high school football team interacted with a younger player in the boys’ locker room on Monday, Sept. 12, according to two anonymous sources familiar with the matter. It remains unclear what exactly happened, but the incident was reported as an altercation to police, who launched an investigation that is still underway.
A police spokeswoman said detectives from the Lykens barracks “are investigating a report of inappropriate conduct that happened at the school,” which is in Tower City, Schuylkill County. The district spans Schuylkill and Dauphin counties.
District Superintendent John Rizzo confirmed the incident occurred during the school day on Sept. 12, but would not provide additional details or say whether parents had been told about the incident. He also said he would not label the incident as hazing, and instead described it as a “behavioral incident.”
The incident came up late last week at a school board meeting after an item to revise the student-athlete handbook was hastily added to the agenda hours before the meeting with no public notice. The handbook outlines expectations and consequences for student athletes and must be signed by all players prior to their athletic season.
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Because fall athletes are in the middle of their season, Board Vice-President Joanna Stroup said she didn’t feel it was right to revise the existing handbook after players already had agreed to the rules.
Instead, the revisions were tabled until the end of the season. During public comment, a parent brought up the locker room incident.
“You don’t want to talk about it, I don’t want to talk about it. … I’m curious to get the input of what is going to be changed,” the parent said.
The superintendent replied:
“We don’t talk about student discipline …” Rizzo began. “Through recent events, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at handbooks and specifically the handbook on the agenda that was tabled.
“There were some things on the handbook that caught my attention on why it’s there, how we got to the point where it is. We had a very healthy conversation about what changes we can explore in the handbook.”
Rizzo did not provide details when asked by PennLive after the meeting what changes were being proposed to the handbook.
“There is some language that could be subjective, and that’s my personal opinion,” Rizzo said after Thursday night’s meeting. “We need to make sure we are producing and approving a document that is clear and concise and in the best interest of student-athletes.”
Rizzo agreed that night to a phone interview Friday morning. But Thursday night, he emailed a PennLive editor, saying, “Student discipline is a private matter, but I can confirm there was not a hazing incident at Williams Valley School District.” He added that he would not comment further, and did not return PennLive’s phone calls, nor did he respond to email requests for what specific changes were being proposed to the handbook or provide a copy of the revised handbook.
Pennsylvania State Police Spokeswoman Megan Frazer said detectives are working with the school administration.
“Due to the actors being juveniles, we are limited on the information we can provide to the public at this time,” she said. “It is still an active investigation.”
Rizzo said once the school district’s investigation ended, the matter was passed to the Pennsylvania State Police.
Rizzo said he didn’t consider the incident “hazing” because it didn’t meet the district’s definition of hazing. The current student-athlete handbook defines hazing as “any intentional, knowing or reckless act directed against a student for the purpose of being initiated into, affiliation with, holding office or maintaining membership in any class, school-sponsored club, activity or athletic team.
“Hazing is any activity expected of someone joining or belonging to a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate,” according to the handbook.
Regardless of the label, Lipkins said school districts must prioritize protecting students, said Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist who specializes in school violence.
“Whether an act of hostility is defined as bullying, hazing or harassment, the issue is the same: the school has a responsibility to protect each student,” she said. “The circ*mstances that would allow such behavior is what is to be considered.”
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Parents in the Williams Valley district told PennLive the school has not addressed the events of Sept. 12, and Rizzo did not respond to questions about how the district is communicating with parents.
Douglas Fierberg, an attorney who represents victims of school violence, said the school does not have to release identifying information about the students involved, but officials should identify any action the school takes to punish misconduct and to make the school’s campus safe for students moving forward.
“Parents justly demand schools talk openly and honestly about conduct to the fullest extent of the law,” Fierberg said. “They are entitled to know what the school has done to remediate the problem and to accommodate the student so parents understand if the dangerous environment has been resolved.”
No member of the Williams Valley School Board has responded to PennLive’s requests for comment. PennLive has submitted a Right-To-Know request to gain access to the student athlete handbook proposed revisions.
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