Damascus Rape Victims Sue Montgomery School Officials: Report

GERMANTOWN, MD — The parents of three teens who were sexually assaulted by fellow football players at Damascus High School have filed a lawsuit against Montgomery County school officials, news outlets report.

The litigation, filed Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, comes almost six months after the attackers' court cases concluded. The suit alleges that high school officials knew about a hazing ritual at Damascus known as "brooming," but ignored the warnings and mishandled the assaults because of the successful football program, according to The Washington Post.

At the time of the October 2018 assaults, the high school's varsity team had a 51-game winning streak.

"They placed winning above the health and safety of some of their most vulnerable students," said William H. "Billy" Murphy, one of the attorneys representing the victims' families, according to the Post.

On Oct. 31, 2018, four junior varsity football players turned off the lights in the boys' locker room, pushed or pinning down four of their teammates, and raped them with a broomstick in a hazing ritual called "brooming," authorities said.

Shortly after the incident, all four teens were charged as adults. Their cases were later transferred back to juvenile court where they pleaded guilty to being involved in the assaults, The Post said.

The latest lawsuit accuses school officials of neglect, claiming that they knew about the football program's hazing practice and still left the boys' locker room unsupervised.

According to a 2019 internal investigation into rape allegations against the football players, the students were unsupervised for 25 minutes. It was during that 25-minute period that officials said the attacks happened.

"Coaches must supervise student athletes at all times, before and after practices and contests at both home and away sites," Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Smith said at a press conference in May 2019.

The coaches, who were responsible for supervising the junior varsity football players, were running late and those "delays were not adequately communicated to other coaches or staff on site," Smith said.

On the day of the attacks, school officials discussed the incident in a group text message and launched their own investigation before reaching out to the Montgomery County Police Department, The Washington Post reported. On Nov. 1, they pulled students out of class for interviews and were able to glean more details about the incident — including the identities of several victims and suspects.

According to the newspaper, none of the victims were sent to receive medical care following the locker room attack. Their parents weren't notified of what happened either.

The plaintiffs in the latest lawsuit are seeking monetary damages, WTOP reports.