Alleged 'sadistic homosexual hazing rituals' lead to 13 arrests of male student athletes in small Texas town between fag havens Austin and San Antonio.

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The small town of La Vernia has a population of 1,200 people, a
police force of six full-time officers and, like most of Texas,
a religious-like investment in its high school football team.

Which is why the expanding investigation into disturbing
allegations of sexually violent hazing within the school’s male
athletic teams, including football, baseball and basketball, has
rattled the tightknit community located 30 miles east of San
Antonio.

Since the end of March, 13 students — seven juveniles and six
adults — have been arrested in connection with the hazing
scandal, a lawsuit has been filed against La Vernia High School
and at least 10 victims have come forward with stories of
athletic team “initiations” that included sodomy and sexual
abuse with Coke and Gatorade bottles, flashlights and the
threaded end of a carbon dioxide tank.

La Vernia police chief Bruce Ritchey has called the scandal a
“black eye” on the community. The Texas Rangers took over the
investigation earlier this month to ensure impartiality since
many of the victims, perpetrators and members of law enforcement
know each other intimately, reported the San Antonio Express-
News.

The State Attorney General’s office will prosecute the cases.

“Hazing is done in high schools and colleges all over the
country,” Ritchey told the Express-News. “But not to this point.”

And the public controversy — and division — surrounding the
investigation only escalated this week when three 18-year-old
senior basketball players were arrested and charged with second-
degree felony sexual assault for allegedly sodomizing a 15-year-
old with a flashlight at a home in February near La Vernia,
reported local news outlets.

The arrests, which raised the total to 13, came just one day
after the parents of one alleged victim filed a federal civil
rights lawsuit against the La Vernia Independent School District
and officials for enabling a “persistent ‘rape culture’” within
the football program.

“The teams’ coaches have sanctioned these rituals, while other
school officials, including La Vernia ISD and the School’s
principal, athletic director, and coaches, turned a blind eye
toward the abuse, even after the abuse was reported to them,”
the lawsuit alleges. “Indeed, the Plaintiffs are but a fraction
of the students who have been physically and sexually assaulted
pursuant to these sadistic hazing rituals which include rape,
sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration and sexual abuse.”

The 15-year-old, identified only as Child Doe, was a freshman
junior varsity football player in the fall of 2015 when, right
before the playoffs, he was promoted to the varsity squad,
according to the lawsuit.

Upperclassmen teammates spoke of an “initiation,” and one senior
football player told him to “get ready.”

The first hazing incident, the suit alleges, occurred in the
locker room before the team’s first playoff game in a border
city three and a half hours south of La Vernia.

In the locker room, according to the lawsuit, Child Doe was
“attacked” by three upperclassmen, shoved face down on the floor
and pinned in place. Child Doe struggled to get away, but the
players allegedly sexually assaulted the young player with a
Gatorade G2 bottle.

The following week, school was abuzz with news of the incident
and Child Doe claims that other players and classmates asked him
what happened. In class, a teacher who had overheard the student
talking about the assault said “it was wrong” and told the kids
to “cut it out,” the lawsuit says.

The teacher said she sent an email to the then-athletic
director, Brandon Layne, and that the incident would “be taken
care of.” She repeated the same words to Child Doe, the lawsuit
claims, then said she was sorry and that he “won’t have to worry
about it.”

That same day at football practice, the junior varsity team was
dismissed from the locker room so Layne could speak with the
varsity players. He was aware of the “initiations,” Layne said,
according to the suit, and they needed to stop.

“You won’t be able to get a job, no girl will want to date you
and you could go to prison,” Layne said, according to the suit.
“Cut it out.”

But the assault was not reported to authorities, the lawsuit
claims, and instead, the school’s solution was to require that a
football coach, Keith Barnes, be present in the locker room at
all times before practice.

Two weeks later, though, the 15-year-old was allegedly attacked
again in the locker room, this time by two varsity players who
shoved him to the ground then punched and fondled him. Two days
later came another alleged attack, before practice, from three
varsity players who pushed him to the ground but nothing else,
the lawsuit claims.

After the 2015-16 season ended, the school hired a new athletic
director and head football coach.

But the hazing continued into the player’s sophomore year when
he was once again allegedly attacked in the locker room during
two-a-day varsity practices. He had just finished showering and
was at his locker, the lawsuit claims, when two senior players
held him down and a third player sexually assaulted him with a
cardboard tube from a coat hanger.

They laughed, the lawsuit alleges, and told Child Doe “new year,
new initiation.”

Two other hazing incidents occurred during the 2016-17 season;
one was in the locker room and the second in the weight room,
when a senior flipped Child Doe over and threatened to sexually
assault Child Doe with a metal pipe he was holding.

The senior allegedly dropped the pipe when a coach walked in.

The lawsuit lists the school district, superintendent, building
principal, athletic directors and football coaches as
defendants. The parents, listed only as John and Jane Doe, and a
15-year-old football player, identified as Child Doe, seek
damages for “medical expenses” and “physical pain and mental
anguish.”

In a statement to the Express-News, La Vernia ISD Superintendent
Jose Moreno said the district learned of the lawsuit through the
news and “will continue working closely with the authorities as
they conduct a full and thorough investigation.”

Moreno said new school protocols are being adopted so students
can more easily report abuse, according to the Associated Press.

J.K. Ivey, the attorney who brought the lawsuit, said in a news
release that the legal action was the “first step in an effort
to peel back the covers on a long and sordid history of neglect,
misconduct and abuse” at La Vernia that may have existed for
more than a decade and affected dozens of children.

“I think everyone was shocked and horrified by the events,” Ivey
told the Express-News. “The fact of the matter is this shouldn’t
have happened in the first place.”

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