Locker room sex assault victims’ parents sue Md. school system, asserting officials ignored ‘brooming’ ritual to protect football program

The parents of three Maryland teenagers who were sexually assaulted by their football teammates in 2018 sued Montgomery County school officials on Thursday, asserting the officials ignored warnings about a ritual at Damascus High School known as “brooming” while placing outsize importance on the school’s vaunted football program.

The litigation, filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, specifically accused school officials of neglectfully giving junior varsity players unsupervised access to the football locker room for up to an hour a day — from the end of the school day at 2:30 p.m. to the start of their practice at 3:30 p.m. That lack of supervision was inexcusable, the litigation asserts, in part because at least one coach had been told of an alleged broomstick assault a year earlier but brushed off parents’ concerns as “just rumors.”

The officials also ignored the threat posed by one player — ultimately charged in the Oct. 31, 2018, attacks — who had incurred about 12 school suspensions in previous years and been accused of fighting, sexual harassment and other misbehavior, according to the litigation. When school officials did learn about the broomstick assaults, they played down what happened, delayed calling police and delayed telling the victims’ parents what had happened, according to the legal claims...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/locker-room-sex-assault-victims-sue-md-school-system-asserting-officials-ignored-brooming-ritual-to-protect-football-program/2020/02/06/7713a854-479a-11ea-ab15-b5df3261b710_story.html#comments-wrapper