Five Wrestlers could be expelled
Five boys on Deltona High’s team are accused of hazing, and 3 of them face criminal charges.<\/p>\n
By Stephen Hudak | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted February 4, 2005 <\/p>\n
DELTONA — Three members of Deltona High School’s best-ever wrestling team were accused Thursday of hog-tying a learning-disabled teammate and repeatedly zapping him with a grill igniter.<\/p>\n
None of the boys was arrested, but Volusia County deputy sheriffs filed complaints with the state attorney seeking felony charges of aggravated battery and false imprisonment.<\/p>\n
“It was a prank that went too far, “sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said. He said no one was seriously injured.<\/p>\n
The three and two other wrestlers, including the 17-year-old victim, also accused of hazing, have been recommended for expulsion, spokeswoman Nancy Wait said. School officials suspended all five.<\/p>\n
Deltona High School Principal Gary Marks asked deputies to investigate.<\/p>\n
School officials said two hazing incidents occurred in a wrestling practice room at the high school Tuesday before the team’s final home meet against West Orange High and Lake Highland Prep.<\/p>\n
Marks said officials learned of the hazing incidents Wednesday morning when the 17-year-old, who deputies say participated in the first incident, told a physical-education teacher about the second.<\/p>\n
Davidson said the first involved a freshman wrestler of slight build who was hog-tied and had his mouth taped shut before he was released unharmed by teammates. The freshman wasn’t zapped.<\/p>\n
Davidson said the 17-year-old was the next victim.<\/p>\n
In a news release, deputies said his teammates tackled him, hog-tied him with a jump rope and used the flint-sparking device to shock him 20 times, despite his pleas to stop and let him up.<\/p>\n
Davidson said a heavier teammate held the victim down by sitting on him.<\/p>\n
The State Attorney’s Office must decide whether to charge the students, who could be prosecuted as adults or juveniles. The Orlando Sentinel does not identify suspects charged as juveniles.<\/p>\n
The Sentinel also will not identify the 17-year-old victim or his father, who said his son was humiliated by the incident. The father said he withdrew his son Thursday from Deltona High School.<\/p>\n
He said the boys also yanked down his son’s pants and boxers.<\/p>\n
“He’s never felt like he fit in at that school, “said the father, who described his son as learning-disabled. “He wants to be accepted so awful bad. He feels if he goes back, [the students] will hate him even more now than they did before.”<\/p>\n
The allegations mar the team’s best-ever regular season, which ended Wednesday in Winter Springs where Deltona’s wrestling squad, depleted by the suspensions, was drubbed, 56-10.<\/p>\n
School spokeswoman Wait said the district is conducting an internal inquiry of coach Brian Kells, who has directed Deltona High’s program since 2000. “Obviously these boys were unsupervised, “she said.<\/p>\n
The principal said Kells was at a faculty meeting at the time.<\/p>\n
The incident is the first test of the school’s hazing policy, which was formally added to the student code of conduct and discipline last school year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five Wrestlers could be expelledFive boys on Deltona High’s team are accused of hazing, and 3 of them face criminal charges. By Stephen Hudak | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted February 4, 2005 DELTONA — Three members of Deltona High School’s best-ever wrestling team were accused Thursday of hog-tying a learning-disabled teammate and repeatedly zapping him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-bv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}