SEBASTIAN, FL -- Last week the Indian River County school district suspended two employees and canceled its soccer season at Sebastian River Middle School over an alleged hazing incident.
Administrators did not say what happened, but a sheriff's report released today reveals details of the incident.
According to the report, soccer team was riding a bus home from a game in Okeechobee.
The victim tells deputies two older students were picking on the sixth graders.
He says one of them took a crumbled up apple box and tried to force in into his backside through his clothes.
The boy goes on to say he was dragged into the aisle of the bus, with the two attackers holding his pants down, and that one of them violated him with the box.
According to the report, the victim "was yelling for them to stop. However, everybody on the school bus was so loud that the coaches, who were sitting in the front of the school bus, could not hear him."
The report says while this was going on, other students were taking pictures with their cell phones.
This is not the first account of hazing in this school district. Last spring the district fired its baseball coach and assistant coach at Sebastian River High School after a report of students going after a teammate's backside with a 2-liter soda bottle.
No one was arrested. But the superintendent did call for more awareness of hazing, requiring students and staff to watch videos, look at hand-outs and discuss the issue.
In this case involving the soccer team, deputies did arrest two middle school students for sexual battery.
We tried to talk with the school's principal, the school district
spokesperson, and its superintendent about this latest incident.
So far no one has returned our calls.
