Sex Assault Ends N.J. School’s Football

Local and county police are investigating a New Jersey high school football team for highly disturbing alleged hazing rituals. Sayreville War Memorial High School’s football season was already canceled this week after parents came forward with accounts of their freshman children being hazed. The locker room lights would be shut off and upperclassmen would shove a finger into the rectum of freshman players, according to a parent who spoke anonymously to NJ Advance Media. The same finger would sometimes be shoved in their mouths. “Right on the floor. … It was happening every day,” said the parent. “Kids would just sit around and witness [stuff] like this.” The parent said seniors were the “ringleaders.” Madeline Thillet, the mother of one of the senior investigated, downplayed the allegation. “I was at the police station with him when they were questioning him. They were talking about a butt being grabbed. That’s about it. No one was hurt. No one died,” she said. “I don’t understand why they’re being punished. I think that the forfeited game was punishment enough.”