Bad news out of Sahuarita: Nine members of Sahuarita High School’s wrestling team have been arrested under suspicion of participating in a bullying incident in the school’s locker room.
From the Green Valley News:
According to police, several members of the wrestling team cornered a freshman Tuesday evening and “roughed him up.” Police said the victim’s pants were pulled off and several of the attackers performed a lewd act on him.
Wrestling Coach Tom Dorgan told the Sahuarita Sun/Green Valley News by email that he is still gathering information and would have no comment at this time. Dorgan, who has coached at the school for 33 years, said they have every intention of continuing the season.
Police termed the attack a “bullying/hazing” incident and said the freshman was not on the wrestling team.
Three of the suspects are 18 years old and have been identified by police as Andres Vasquez of Amado, Jorge Loya-Lopez of Sahuarita and Marcus Stitts of Sahuarita. The six juveniles arrested were not identified.
Police said the victim did not come forward and they were notified of the incident by somebody else Wednesday morning. They spent Wednesday and well into the early hours Thursday interviewing witnesses and suspects.
The wrestlers all were charged with aggravated assault and kidnapping.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2013.
From the GV News story, “Police said the victim’s pants were pulled off and several of the attackers performed a lewd act on him.”
If true, that looks like sexual assault.
Yet also, from the same story, “Police termed the attack a “bullying/hazing” incident and said the freshman was not on the wrestling team.”
Assault is wrong, but to put sexual assault in the same category as bullying/hazing? huh?
A confused, perhaps inept police department down there that eerie place?
Mr. Star, it actually sounds to me like a typical high school depant-ing, and maybe a spanking.
What has the pansy world come to? Freshman hazing has been a part of high school since at least the 50’s.
I swear, political correctness etc. has ruined the country. Now every kid thinks if he is bullied he has to shoot up a joint, because of the attention these, “boys will be boys” incidents, garner.
Makes me sick to think of the world my sons will be growing up in.
Thanks for the assist, Burnie Mak!
Just think if there would have been an armed guard there this never would of happened. An assault is an assault even if you want to call it a depanting. Or did you just enjoy the spanking?
Send as loud a message as possible that this behavior is not tolerated. Bullying kills.
As a Sahuarita resident & a former bus driver (Sahuarita), I’m sorry for the victim & if found guilty, those young men should be punished as the law dictates. One of the named wrestlers used to ride my bus & I feel bad for his parents. I’m also dismayed by some of the previous comments, i.e the boys will be boys attitude that has been used too many times in too many unpleasant circumstances….
This is not ok. this is not boys will be boys. the lewd act was not a simple spanking so don’t talk unless you know the facts. don’t judge what someone has been through. it is adults that use words like pansy that create this type of behavior. im sure you are good Christians too. please.
BURNIE MAK’s addled, heartless comment seems like one a genuine homophobe would make.
and they had no GUN this is horrible and essentially kids in my neighborhood 🙁
No riorican, there is actually not a shred of anti homosexuality in my comment, typical response from an unintelligent individual when confronted with an opinion other than theirs.
I, simply, am young enough to remember high school and high school sports, to realize what this was. Not some sort of heinous assault, but rather standard coming of age happening of adolescent males. However this “bullying” campaign has turned every little thing that occurs some major debacle. RIDICULOUS
It’s “standard coming of age” for one of the assailants to commit an act of lewdness on this humiliated boy’s body?
If that would have happened to one of your sons, would you just shrug it off?
Do people such as Burnie Mak experience difficulty with change? Apparently, and duh. Again, assault, whatever the flavor or location, is wrong.
Anyone who uses the word “pansy” may be from the old school where “standard coming of age happening of adolescent males” is expected and accepted, but they obviously have not “evolved” with the majority of our society. Bullying, or whatever you want to call it, has no place in a society of advanced human beings. Kids will be kids, of course, and it’s up to us adults to steer our children in a more inclusive direction for our society instead of an exclusive one. Children learn mostly from us, unless of course, we abrogate our responsibility to others, or worse, no one at all.
Those young punks need to be taught a lesson. That it is NOT necessary to rough up a freshman simply because he is a freshman. Or for any other reason, even if your old man thinks it’s OK. That people today don’t worry about “squeeling” on low-lifes. I wish it were actively so when I went to school. Unfortunately for me, it was not. Teachers, coaches, ETC. insisted that it was not their job to care for the kids, only to TEACH them.
I hope this young man is able to overcome the shame that was purpetrated upon him.
Bill Randall said:
> I hope this young man is able to overcome the shame that was purpetrated upon him.
Bill, the shame isn’t on the young man who was attacked. It’s on those who accosted him, if they’re capable of feeling such a thing. It’s still on them even if they can’t. That just means they’re numb.
Bullying can do serious damage, can change lives for the worse. It is darn serious. Bullying may never stop entirely, but it must be stomped on.
What actually happened is that these wrestling jocks jacked off on this poor freshman and ejaculated on his naked body. If that’s not humiliating enough. It goes beyond “Boys will be boys”
So none of you idiots ever had to deal with “freshman Friday” or freshman hazing? You are the sad pathetic, sheltered, cry babies. Not I.
Grow a pair
BURNIE MAK , a Pro-Rape reader of the Tuscon Weekly. I am sure they are thrilled to have you as a customer. It is good to see that most other members of the community are more stable.
Really Ethan Allen? Pro-rape huh? Pure Ignorance.
Tell you what, I will make a deal with you. If you show me an incidence/mention of a RAPE anywhere in this story, and I will never comment on this site again.
However, if you are unable to do so, you will never mention me, reply to me, or acknowledge anything about me ever again.
Deal?
Burnie, I’ll be posting an update to this story a bit later that may make you want to retract this bet.
Mr. Mendez:
I appreciate that. However I was going on what was posted, if indeed an actual sexual assault occurred then yes, I would retract all statements, and be in agreement with the other commentators.
I do, however, stand by my statements that high school freshman hazing is a normal part of growing up, rape however is not.
And here is still another vulgar post by BERNIE MACK in response to another story about a local high school teacher that molested kids:
“Man all these stories are depressing. I never had a teachers aid get it on with me in High School, and boy would I have ever welcomed it!”
You sir, are urgently in need of therapy.
riorican: actually, yet again, I am accurately expressing the exact thoughts of any true blue blooded American male, whether they admit it or not.
We are talking 16 and 18 year olds with a 22 year old woman… hardly torture for those young men.
But I am sure you wouldn’t understand. (FYI – you are the freak, not I)
Mr. Burnie Mak,I remember seniors “hazing” freshman, Only at our school it was to make them polish the bronze floor plaque in the school’s entryway. Sexual assault is not “Just hazing”, it will scar an individual for life. This is a serious issue, not a case of “boys will be boys”. Your insensitive attitude is sad. Traumatic events such as rape and sexual assault have, aside from obvious physical traumas, profound long-term psychological effects on all victims including but not limited to children who are assault victims.
These incidents will continue until such time as those who are targeted by bullies like the Sahuarita wrestlers are allowed to physically retaliate rather than being told to tell an adult or be arrested for daring to stand up for themselves. I was physically targeted in high school by similar lowlifes; after receiving intensely painful beatings for their troubles, their attentions stopped. When their parents called to complain and threaten legal action, they were offered the choice of assault charges being pressed against their children in return, the next encounter concluding with their little angel being beaten into a nursing home or dropping the matter altogether. As I do not possess a legal record for violence, one may infer what course of action the thugs’ parents decided was best.
It’s long past time to begin judging individual cases of violence based on their circumstances rather than applying a no-tolerance blanket policy. Bullies should be arrested, expelled and driven across the land; victims who take proper action to no stand up for themselves should be praised and held up as examples for us all.