LAWRENCE COUNTY, Pa. — Channel 11 obtained exclusive cell phone video from inside the Mohawk High School gymnasium where upperclassmen were alleged to have assaulted five underage teens on the football team. The video was taken during what the student-athletes call “nap time” — the time between morning and afternoon practice at the end of the summer.
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“It’s scary, and I’d like to know where the supervision was during the time this all went on,” a parent tells Channel 11.
In the video, you can see the lights are off and the teens are lying on the ground, some with blankets, others half-dressed with no shirts or shoes on. In a portion of the video, you can hear a lot of laughing and a slapping noise. Then you can hear a teen say, “Sit on him. Dude, sit on him. Dude, sit on his face. Put your *expletive* on his face.”
Then you hear, “Turn that light off.”
Parents say private body parts were put on their kids’ faces, and they want the suspects, coaches and school district held responsible for this unsupervised time.
“We deserve to know the truth and what has happened,” another parent tells Channel 11. “I think it’s sad this has happened, and it’s sad for the innocent football players.”
The Lawrence County district attorney told me that despite that video, there is no evidence of a sex crime because the intent was physical harm, not sexual gratification. The DA says that’s how the law is written. He says the evidence did show physical assaults, which include harassment, disorderly conduct and hazing.
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