SANFORD, Maine — Members of the South Portland High School football team have reportedly been questioned at length about a hazing incident and suspected drug use.
It happened behind closed doors yesterday afternoon.
According to reports, parents knew nothing about it.
The South Portland football team is playing Sanford tonight.
It is unusual for high school administrators in Maine to go to these lengths to investigate suspected drug use among student athletes.
South Portland’s superintendent and athletic director told CBS 13 yesterday afternoon that the entire South Portland High School Red Riots football team, rather than practice for tonight’s game against Sanford, were instead taken to a lecture hall, where they were questioned individually by the principal, athletic director and other administrators.
Athletic director Todd Livingston would not say the nature of the questioning, or what, if anything, they may have learned.
Superintendent Ken Kunin told CBS 13 this involved what they believe to be an incident of hazing where younger players on the team were asked by older ones to take substances.
Ken Kunin also said that when they found out about it, they took these steps as a matter of student safety.
The Portland Press Herald reports that, according to two parents, students were held in the gym for nearly five hours, where they were questioned about reports of pills in the locker room.
They were also ordered to turn over their cellphones.
Those parents reportedly said they had no idea why their children weren’t answering their phones and that they were not informed by the school this was going on.
They went on to say students were warned not to talk about the meeting or the line of questioning and that if they did, they were told they could be expelled.
As of now, the athletic director says the entire South Portland football team will be in Sanford for tonight’s game.
South Portland police say they are not a part of this, that it is solely a school investigation.