Severe allegations of hazing have led to the cancellation of the remainder of the 2014-2015 season for Sayreville War Memorial High School Football Team. In early October, Superintendent Richard Labbe went public with the decision to shut down the team in response to student and parent charges that there were hazing rituals occurring, according to one parent, in the team locker room before and after practice nearly every day. Students report that upperclassmen would make a “wolf call” sound that would signal the teammates to find a freshman team member and pin him to the ground while another team member would violate the boy. The extreme sexual nature of these accusations sparked a criminal investigation led by local and county officials. Parents of some of the team members are shocked; they cannot understand how such actions were allowed to take place on school property and how some team members simply were bystanders and did not act. Fear was prevalent among younger team members, some of whom had resorted to changing outside on the field instead of in the locker room for dread of being assaulted. A parent of one of the players, who wished to remain anonymous, frightened about potential repercussions from other football players and parents, told Matthew Stanmyre of NJ Advanced Media for NJ.com, “These parents here, they’re in shock. We never expected anything like this to happen. Your kid, he’s going to school, school’s got to be a place where you think the kid is the safest.” Madeline Thillet, mother of senior Dylan Thillet, who is also a captain for the team, said at a Board Meeting October 7, “I was at the police station with him when they were questioning him,” she said. “They were talking about a butt being grabbed. That’s about it. No one was hurt. No one died. I don’t understand why they’re being punished. I think that the forfeited game was punishment enough” (credit NJ Advanced Media for NJ.com). There are mixed reactions among the student body; some are outraged that this happened in their school, while others feel as if the football team members did nothing wrong and they are fighting for them to get their season back. Allegations of the assistant coach being in possession of two boxes of steroids and several syringes do nothing but add to the legal issues Sayreville War Memorial High School is going to be dealing with. Students on the football team are siding with their head coach, stating that he had nothing to do with their actions, “Honest to God, if the season doesn’t finish, I don’t care,” said Connor O’Brien. He continued,”That dude needs to keep his job.” News surfaced of head coach George Najjar’s involvement in “hazing” as far back as the 80s in his job at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn. One of his past players Chris Grayson recounted being paddled on the buttocks, saying, ““I got my paddle, I gave my paddle and that was it. We were family.” However, the escalation over the years in severity and society’s quickness to dismiss this kind of behavior as a simple part of “football culture” is what Governor Chris Christie called “extraordinarily disturbing.” Parent Holly Emory said parents and players are feeling attacked both in television and social media, stating that the players and parents are being made out to “look like we are crazy people. And it makes us look like we are raising monsters. These kids aren’t monsters…we need to find a way to make this good.” Our own West Milford students and football players responded to the developing story. Derek Sinke stated that this is “something that really shouldn’t happen” and felt that these players should face suspension. Rich Hanley added that the behavior of the players in Sayreville was “revolting” and thankfully does not see that this would ever be anything that could happen here in West Milford. “I thought it was wrong,” stated Kyle Vreeland, who then added that the “players shouldn’t be allowed to play anymore—ever” for the rest of their high school careers or even into college. Teammember Nick Megna was in agreement, “I think it is wrong, too. What happened was not right.” Recent developments indicate that seven players were charged, three were charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, conspiracy to commit aggravated criminal sexual contact, criminal restraint, and hazing for engaging in an act of sexual penetration upon one of the victims, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey. The remaining four teammates were charged with various counts including aggravated assault, conspiracy, aggravated criminal sexual contact, hazing and riot by participating in the attack of the remaining victims, Carey said. In response to the allegations, at least one player, Myles Hartsfield, has lost his scholarship to Penn State University. As of this point in time, all seven players have been suspended from school and the five coaches, all tenured teachers, have been suspended with pay as no official criminal charges have be pressed against them.