‘NOTHING MORE THAN HORSEPLAY’

Students Charged Over Brutal Broomstick ‘Hazing’ in High School Locker Room

In one video, a victim struggling with five attackers while others watched, giggled, and shouted, “Get his legs!”

A number of New Jersey high school students have been charged over a series of alleged sexual assaults that took place in a football team’s locker room over a two-month period last year, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said Monday. The specific number of Wall High School students included in the complaint was not disclosed, according to a statement, as all included are juveniles. However, the prosecutor’s office said it was publicizing the news of the criminal complaints “in response to intense public scrutiny” and to educate “victims of hazing, harassment, intimidation, and bullying” that “such conduct is not a ‘rite of passage.’” The alleged instances of hazing, which took place in September and October last year, were captured in several videos taken by students, one of which was viewed by NJ.com. Earlier on Monday, the outlet reported details of the footage, which in part showed a victim struggling with five attackers while others watched, giggled, and shouted, “Get his legs!” Christopher Adams, a defense attorney for one of the charged students, called the prosecutor’s disclosure of the case’s development “unprecedented and grossly irresponsible.” He downplayed the alleged sexual assault, calling the incidents “nothing more than horseplay.”