U.S. News

Brutal High School Football Hazing Left Teen With Traumatic Brain Injury, Lawsuit Says

WAY TOO FAR

The victim was allegedly beaten in a ritualist locker-room game called “Bodies.”

GettyImages-2724158_vcbcps
Grant Halverson/Getty Images

A white teenager was beaten and called the n-word in a high school football hazing ritual that left him with brain damage, a lawsuit alleges. The unnamed teen was a player for Mater Dei High School and the lawsuit claims that, in February, he played a ritualistic game called “Bodies” in which two students punch each another until one of them surrenders. The plaintiff took multiple blows to the face and head and now has a “traumatic brain injury” which causes “pain, slurred speech and cognitive dysfunction,” the complaint alleges. It also claims team coach Bruce Rollinson told the victim’s father after the alleged incident: “If I had a hundred dollars for every time these kids played ‘Bodies’ or ‘Slappies,’ I’d be a millionaire.” In a letter Wednesday, Father Walter Jenkins, the president of Mater Dei, told students: “Please know that we take the matter seriously and commit to you that all aspects will be handled consistently and in accordance with the core values of our institution.”

Read it at The Los Angeles Times