DEXTER, Maine — Three Dexter Regional High School students will be charged with assault stemming from an alleged hazing incident at the school last month, police said.
Two students will each be charged with two counts of assault, while the third will be charged with one count of assault, said Dexter Police Detective Sgt. Alan Grinnell on Friday. All charges are Class D misdemeanors.
The 12th graders were not named by police because they are minors.
Dexter Police Chief Kevin Wintle said late Friday afternoon that the students “have not yet been summonsed, but we’re in the process.”
The alleged hazing incidents happened during an overnight event for the high school’s football team on Nov. 16 and 17.
SAD 46 Superintendent Kevin Jordan said a total of 12 students were suspended for their roles in the hazing.
Four students were suspended from school for 10 days, two were suspended seven days and six were suspended for one day, Jordan said. The students are also barred from participating in competitive afterschool events for periods ranging from one week to one month, depending on involvement.
Court dates for the juveniles are set for February.
“DRHS has remained very cooperative throughout my investigation,” said Grinnell in a statement.
The perpetrators and victims were all minors.
After the SAD 46 board of directors meeting on Dec. 5, one mother, who asked not to be identified, said her son had his pants pulled down while three players took turns hitting his backside with a polycarbonate bat.
“It’s not the yellow bat at Walmart,” she said.
“The boy that hit my child backed up several feet and made him pull his pants down and ran six or seven feet to get more on his hit,” she said.
There were five hazing incidents, according to Jordan. The first occurred at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 16, while the other four happened between 4:30 and 5:15 a.m. on Nov. 17. Three of the five incidents were caught on the school’s video surveillance system.
All of the suspended students were back in school as of Dec. 6, said Jordan.
Wintle said incidents like this won’t be tolerated by his department.
“I feel this is very, very troublesome and disturbing,” said Wintle. “The ones that are responsible will be brought to justice on it. I have zero tolerance for anything like this.”
Close to 70 hours went into the investigation, he said.
“It was a very difficult investigation. It was lengthy and so many people were involved. We did a very, very thorough investigation,” said Wintle.
Wintle said he is bothered that his budget doesn’t allow him to install a school resource officer.
“We’re definitely going to be looking at grants in the future,” said Wintle, who spent nearly three years as a school resource officer at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport. “That’s one thing I tried to get in place when I took office.”
For now, police will try to make more trips to the schools, said Dexter’s police chief.
Hope that UME head coach Jack Cosgrove will consider these young men for the Black Bears. Just today Male Athletes Against Violence were self-righteously promoting their cause on campus while revealingly refusing to comment on their one-time illustrious member Javon Belcher except to call him a victim too. Tell that to the family of his late girlfriend.
Wow! that is how they responded? They should have been giving talking points prior to the event, not much forethought there.
Well some of those football players did no get into Umaine by SAT scores alone.
Just another lefty self serving organization.
I knew when this story was first reported it would not end there. I made a comment that it sounded more like an assault than a hazing based on limited information. The victim in this story was humiliated and physically assaulted and that is not something that will be gone from his mind for a very long time. This was not just a school prank and therefore it is proper that assault charges are filed. I hope this serves as a lesson to other young people to say hey violence is never ok. We need to teach our youth morals and humanity as our parents taught us. I only hope that all victims that were involved find a peace of mind and those who instigated this and partook that they learn a valuable lesson of do not to others what you would not want done to yourself.
I think that they should not be allowed to play sports for one year 365 days and not school year. You can rest assured that if they were adults that they would get some jail time. It maybe suspended with parole but they would get it. These types of things need to stop. And what is bad there seems to be more and more in the news. Send the message now.
There are many , many sexual assults that take place everyday in Maine schools and none get reported, and do you know why because the Administrators hide it and settle it in house. They actually talk to each other on how to conceal it. Thats why nobody reports it.. Girls know they can’t go to the supers because they deal with it in house. Most of the time parents never find out because the kids hide it from them..
NOT ENOUGH!
True, but could be worse.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/maine-west-high-school-su_n_2165512.html
Good job. Turn them into criminals to help with the law suit. Any criminal charges against the coaches who dropped the ball in the supervision department? This is going to cost the tax payers of Dexter a small fortune by the time the lawyers get their fill. They should have been thrown off the team and suspended for a week, not turned into criminals for one lapse in judgement.
They ASSAULTED people…with wooden bats. This is hardly sitting on a kid’s back while they do a few pushups….please tell me you dont believe they should have just gotten a slap on the wrist? There is quite enough of that which already goes on in this state
One of the kids involved works for me. No one on the team believes that there should be criminal charges against anyone. Even the kids who got “assaulted”. The only regret ANY of them have is that it got caught on camera and an over protective mommy found out about it on Facebook. I survived summer camp, high school, and Parris Island back in the 70’s, I somehow think these kids will get over it. These kids got carried away and made a mistake in judgement like teenage boys sometimes do. There is no need to make them into criminals over it, other than ammunition for a law suit.
I predict that, within a year or two, the late Jovan Belcher will be inducted into the UME Sports Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, some time in the future you will probably be correct.
Good. That culture needs to change. The principal described these kids as good kids that made a mistake.
I disagree. I grew up with a few jerks like that and they really never changed.
Great Job Kevin, Nice to see you doing the right thing. Things sure have changed since we were that age…too bad really, but hopefully the charges against them will wake them up to reality real fast.
All part of America going soft and transforming to a police state.