January 27, 2001
School official says wrestling incident exaggerated
By Jefferson Wolfe
Staff Writer
SYCAMORE -- A Mohawk High School official says a school investigation shows that rumors about what happened during a wrestling team hazing incident are exaggerated.
The incident happened after school Jan. 16 in the field house, but before wrestling practice, Superintendent Randy Chamberlain said. School officials became aware of the incident the next day, but the more serious allegations were not made until Jan. 23, he said.
Contrary to rumors that a youth was sodomized with a tampon, this did not happen, Chamberlain said.
"The use of the word sodomy is way out of bounds," he said. "We do not believe it happened at this point."
A tampon was involved in the incident, Chamberlain said. However, after speaking to the people who were there, it was determined that the victim was not sodomized, he said.
"Rumors and innuendo doesn't make the story true," Chamberlain said. "The incident itself -- the rumors and accusations may be as harmful as anything that was done."
The youths involved want to put the incident behind them, he said.
"They are embarrassed by it, they know they went too far, their parents are embarrassed by it," Chamberlain said.
There was one victim in the more serious incident, he said. Several other students were given "pink belly," a condition resulting from being slapped in the stomach. Wrestlers have hazed each other with "pink belly" for some time, although it is not allowed, Chamberlain said.
"If it's caught, they are told to stop," he added.
There were no coaches present during the hazing, Chamberlain stated.
"There really wasn't proper supervision at the time," he said.
The coach, Bret Margraf, was late in arriving, Chamberlain said. Any discipline Margraf may have received is between the coach and the school, he said.
Margraf could not be reached by telephone Friday evening.
All of the youths involved are still attending classes. Since it happened after classes, the matter is being treated as an athletic situation, Chamberlain said.
The school has a strict attendance policy, and a suspension hurts a student's academic performance. If a student misses too many days, he or she will not get credit for classes, he noted.
"We want them here at school," Chamberlain said.
Despite this incident, the student body at Mohawk is composed of good kids, he stated.
"This was not indicative of the behavior of the student body," Chamberlain said.
The Wyandot County prosecutor's and sheriff's offices are investigating the hazing. However, the school did not report the matter, Chamberlain noted.
"We never turned it over to the prosecutor's office," he said.
After the initial hazing report, the entire wrestling team was forced to write a letter of apology to the victim of the hazing and six of the wrestlers were punished through loss of participation in sports and being required to perform community service.