Boys will be boys

[Gob]

A 13-year-old boy who was cornered on an empty school bus, bound with duct tape and sodomized with a pencil by three older students has been bullied so intensely by his community for reporting the crime that his family has had to move.

The incident, which occurred during a Norwood High School wrestling trip in Denver, Colorado in February 2012, was reported to police by the victim's father, then the K-12 principal and school football coach. Charges were quickly filed against teens Hayden Harris, 14, and Talon Harris, 16, whose father, Robert Harris, was the school's wresting coach and president of the school board, and their friend, Timothy Armintrout, aged 15.


The attackers later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, according to the Denver district attorney's office. News spread quickly of the incident in the small ranching town of Norwood, which is located near the Telluride ski resort and has just 500 residents. But instead of condemning the heinous act, the community rallied around the three star wrestlers claiming the incident was a case of boys being boys.


The mother of one of the perpetrators even made T-shirts supporting the attackers, with the slogan 'Team TTH' - the boys' first initials. Students, including the son of a Norwood High School teacher, wore them at the Norwood Schools' annual end-of-the-year barbeque in May 2012, until officials made them take them off. Students also put 'Go to Hell' stickers on the victim's locker. The victim's father, who was allegedly advised against reporting the assault to police by the school board and administrators, has since resigned as principal. He has taken another job paying half his previous salary in a town 200 miles away.


He says the bullying from the community aimed at his family became too much. 'Nobody would help us,' he told Bloomberg News. 'We contacted everybody and nobody would help us.' A spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney's office added: 'There was a huge backlash, and everybody turned against this boy and his family for bringing trouble to their town.'

The incident, which appeared to be an act of hazing, happened on February 16 last year when the Norwood High School wrestling team traveled to Denver to compete in the Colorado High School State Wrestling Championship.
According to CBS4, while the other wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament weighed in at Denver's Pepsi Center, the two ninth graders, the eighth grader and the victim, a seventh grader, were left unsupervised on a Norwood School bus.

The older boys then attacked the younger student, taping his hands and ankles and assaulted him with the pencil.
Washparkphrophet.com reported that the victim's brother heard the attackers laughing about the assault on his younger sibling and told his father.

'I was shocked beyond belief, and I was mad,' the father told the news website of learning about the attack. 'I do believe I was madder than I have ever been. You're trying to protect your kids, and then something like this happens.'
He said that he immediately confronted Robert Harris, the wrestling coach, about the incident, who he says initially denied the attack then justified it by claiming 'this happens 1,000 times a day around the U.S.'
According to CBS4, school officials discussed the possibility of including the victim in the one-day, in-school suspension handed down to his alleged assailants soon after the incident occurred. That was the only punishment the school dealt.

One of the students pleaded guilty to sexual contact without consent and the other two pleaded guilty to third degree assault, Bloomberg reported. They were handed down varied sentences that included probation, community service and restitution of about $2,500 each. Robert Harris was reappointed as the school's wrestling coach and was given a letter of reprimand for leaving students unattended on a school bus, it was reported. However, he has since resigned from the role.
All three perpetrators returned to the scene of the crime for this year's tournament in Denver.

Sticking things up other boys bums? That's a very gay thing to do, isn't it? (No offense Scoot.)

[liberty]

A 13-year-old boy who was cornered on an empty school bus, bound with duct tape and sodomized with a pencil by three older students has been bullied so intensely by his community for reporting the crime that his family has had to move.

The incident, which occurred during a Norwood High School wrestling trip in Denver, Colorado in February 2012, was reported to police by the victim's father, then the K-12 principal and school football coach. Charges were quickly filed against teens Hayden Harris, 14, and Talon Harris, 16, whose father, Robert Harris, was the school's wresting coach and president of the school board, and their friend, Timothy Armintrout, aged 15.


The attackers later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, according to the Denver district attorney's office. News spread quickly of the incident in the small ranching town of Norwood, which is located near the Telluride ski resort and has just 500 residents. But instead of condemning the heinous act, the community rallied around the three star wrestlers claiming the incident was a case of boys being boys.


The mother of one of the perpetrators even made T-shirts supporting the attackers, with the slogan 'Team TTH' - the boys' first initials. Students, including the son of a Norwood High School teacher, wore them at the Norwood Schools' annual end-of-the-year barbeque in May 2012, until officials made them take them off. Students also put 'Go to Hell' stickers on the victim's locker. The victim's father, who was allegedly advised against reporting the assault to police by the school board and administrators, has since resigned as principal. He has taken another job paying half his previous salary in a town 200 miles away.


He says the bullying from the community aimed at his family became too much. 'Nobody would help us,' he told Bloomberg News. 'We contacted everybody and nobody would help us.' A spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney's office added: 'There was a huge backlash, and everybody turned against this boy and his family for bringing trouble to their town.'

The incident, which appeared to be an act of hazing, happened on February 16 last year when the Norwood High School wrestling team traveled to Denver to compete in the Colorado High School State Wrestling Championship.
According to CBS4, while the other wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament weighed in at Denver's Pepsi Center, the two ninth graders, the eighth grader and the victim, a seventh grader, were left unsupervised on a Norwood School bus.

The older boys then attacked the younger student, taping his hands and ankles and assaulted him with the pencil.
Washparkphrophet.com reported that the victim's brother heard the attackers laughing about the assault on his younger sibling and told his father.

'I was shocked beyond belief, and I was mad,' the father told the news website of learning about the attack. 'I do believe I was madder than I have ever been. You're trying to protect your kids, and then something like this happens.'
He said that he immediately confronted Robert Harris, the wrestling coach, about the incident, who he says initially denied the attack then justified it by claiming 'this happens 1,000 times a day around the U.S.'
According to CBS4, school officials discussed the possibility of including the victim in the one-day, in-school suspension handed down to his alleged assailants soon after the incident occurred. That was the only punishment the school dealt.

One of the students pleaded guilty to sexual contact without consent and the other two pleaded guilty to third degree assault, Bloomberg reported. They were handed down varied sentences that included probation, community service and restitution of about $2,500 each. Robert Harris was reappointed as the school's wrestling coach and was given a letter of reprimand for leaving students unattended on a school bus, it was reported. However, he has since resigned from the role.
All three perpetrators returned to the scene of the crime for this year's tournament in Denver.

Sticking things up other boys bums? That's a very gay thing to do, isn't it? (No offense Scoot.)

It is a thug thing to do.

[dgs49]

"Football coach." "Wrestling coach."

No surprises here.

Despite reputedly being an "American," and residing in "Steeler Country," I have a lifelong distaste for American football and those who play it. If one were to make a list of the 40 biggest assholes in my high school and placed it along side the varsity football roster, the two lists would have been indistinguishable.

I suspect the same would be true for most schools.

[Miles]

I played football, basketball, wrestled and track in highschool and never once witnessed or even heard of such behaviour and I too live in Steeler country. I would not live in a town the condoned such actions. The title of this should be perverts will be perverts.

[Big RR]

One day that kid might come into the school with an arsenal and shoot the place up, and the officials and citizens of the town will cry "why".

[Miles]

One day that kid might come into the school with an arsenal and shoot the place up, and the officials and citizens of the town will cry "why".

[oldr_n_wsr]

I played football and track in HS and had many friends on the wrestling and basketball teams and I also never saw any behaviour like that.
Ben-Gay in someones jock strap is a different story.

[Lord Jim]

This is just absolutely outrageous...

Words fail...

Remind me never to consider Norwood Colorado as a place to live...

But instead of condemning the heinous act, the community rallied around the three star wrestlers claiming the incident was a case of boys being boys....

The mother of one of the perpetrators even made T-shirts supporting the attackers, with the slogan 'Team TTH' - the boys' first initials. Students, including the son of a Norwood High School teacher, wore them at the Norwood Schools' annual end-of-the-year barbeque...

He said that he immediately confronted Robert Harris, the wrestling coach, about the incident, who he says initially denied the attack then justified it by claiming 'this happens 1,000 times a day around the U.S.'...

This is like a plot from a bad Lifetime Channel horror movie....

If the facts are as they are presented in this article, in a perfectly moral universe, all the parents and other folks justifying this would be sentenced to having their hands and ankles bound with duct tape, their pants pulled down, and pencils shoved up their asses...

So they can personally experience the "good natured hijinks"....

[Jarlaxle]

I played football and track in HS and had many friends on the wrestling and basketball teams and I also never saw any behaviour like that.
Ben-Gay in someones jock strap is a different story.

Ben-Gay? Amateur.

I coated someone's spikes, gloves, and jock strap with poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac I had pulverized with a mortar and pestle. I don't get mad, I get even.

[Andrew D]

I coated someone's spikes, gloves, and jock strap with poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac I had pulverized with a mortar and pestle. I don't get mad, I get even.

Has it occurred to you that you are not the only one with that attitude? I know people who, were you to do that to them, would make you spend a long time begging them to let you die.

[liberty]

I coated someone's spikes, gloves, and jock strap with poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac I had pulverized with a mortar and pestle. I don't get mad, I get even.

Has it occurred to you that you are not the only one with that attitude? I know people who, were you to do that to them, would make you spend a long time begging them to let you die.

Andrew, . I believe he is referencing a retaliation for something that was done to him. Even though I believe it would be best to report it than to escalate it.

[Andrew D]

I read his posting the same way, liberty: He was retaliating for something done to him.

And then the other person re-retaliates. And then he re-re-retaliates. And then ....

"If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless." (Mahatma Gandhi)

[dales]

"Vengence is mine"

~GOD

[Andrew D]

"Vengeance is mine," sayeth the Lord. And he can have it back just as soon as I'm done with it.