It’s not just the annual Thanksgiving Day football game that’s been canceled in the fallout of a hazing incident at the high school in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Students say they’ve now been told they’re not allowed to attend the annual Turkey Toss -- another tradition they’re losing after missing out on countless events during the pandemic.
At Thursday night’s school committee meeting, Haverhill High students said they’re disgusted by the hazing incident, but say only the people who participated should be punished.
"The situation is obviously very disgusting, disturbing and unacceptable in many ways, and the students participating in the video should be punished. As for the students who were not involved at all and not even on the football team, are being punished and that is unfair, especially for the senior class," a senior named Morgan said at the meeting. "We're being stripped from our senior year events that we have all looked forward to very much, especially after losing almost two years of school and normal events from COVID, we shouldn't have to lose this again."
"Innocent students should not be punished because of a few students' disturbing actions," she added.
The vice president of the student council also spoke at the meeting about having to miss out on the Turkey Toss.
"The Haverhill High School Student Council strongly condemns the actions that took place by a few football members whose misconduct led to the cancellation of the rest of the season. The community of Haverhill High students were disappointed by the revelation of illegal and disturbing hazing activities on the football team," a student named Abigail said. "Not only do the consequences affect those who were involved but unfortunately it affects the student body as a whole. Not only was our annual Thanksgiving game canceled but a major senior event, the Turkey Toss, was taken away from us as well. This is a very disheartening time for the Haverhill community because yearly traditions will have to be put on hold as of right now."
Haverhill Superintendent Margaret Marotta said at Thursday's meeting that she is saddened the entire community will suffer because of this conduct.
"Our district will not tolerate harassment, hazing or retaliation in any way," she said. "We applaud those who have had the courage to stand up and come forward."
School officials say members of the football team were seen on video hazing a student. The incident has been described as violent and sexual. Some of the students involved have been suspended, and police are investigating to determine if any crime may have been committed.
Marotta said school officials first became aware of the allegations of misconduct last week and immediately began investigating. She said while initial consequences were imposed, that was prior to them receiving the video of the incident.
"It then became abundantly clear that our investigation did not concern an isolated incident and unfortunately many players were a part of this misconduct or aware of this misconduct," she said, citing the district's ongoing investigation into the hazing, harassment and misconduct, as well as their cooperation with the district attorney and police.
Marotta said counseling support is available for all students negatively affected by what occurred and individual safety plans have been put into place for those most impacted.
The superintendent said she expects additional consequences to be forthcoming.
Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini attended the meeting virtually Thursday night, saying he was interrupting his vacation because it is so important to send a "clear and unequivocal message regarding the disgusting hazing/bullying incident at the high school."
"We have to recognize that hazing and bullying is completely and utterly unacceptable," he said. "It's not who we are as a community. It's not who we are as a high school or as a school community."
The mayor noted that he fully supports the police having been called.
"Normally I do not want police involved in schools but this is so serious that they have to be," he said.
He also said he fully supported the canceling of the football game, in addition to a complete and thorough investigation that will look at how this happened, why it happened, and what measures could have been taken to prevent it.
The mayor went on to say that the students who were involved in this "disgusting incident" should be permanently barred from any of Haverhill's sports teams.
"This is a harsh punishment but necessary to send a clear and unequivocal message that this is unacceptable," he said, adding that he saw a few minutes of the video.
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The mayor also said Thursday night that staff members or coaches should lose their jobs if they knew about about the hazing and didn’t immediately report it or take steps to stop it.
"These actions do not represent our community, they do not represent the vast majority of our student body. Our students are good students, who routinely go onto some of the finest colleges and universities in the land, or go into the military," he said. "Make no mistake about it, this is unacceptable to all of us in the community. This is not boys being boys, this was bullying, violent and is completely unacceptable."
