Adults' Attack On Students At Brick Memorial Game Under Investigation

Note: This article is being updated with more information as further witness reports become available.

A fight between adults and students at Saturday’s Brick Memorial football game is under investigation by police and the Brick Township School District, according to Interim Superintendent Richard Caldes.

A video circulating on Facebook in the aftermath of the game shows adults and some students, with a great deal of yelling and physical struggling, and some profanity, but it’s unclear exactly what’s happening.

Witnesses told the Patch alcohol may have been a factor in the incident. Video forwarded to the Patch shows parents celebrating before the game, chanting “Mustangs!” One woman clad in a Mustangs sweatshirt is holding what appears to be a bottle of beer.

“We are aware of the incident,” Caldes said Sunday morning. “We are looking at everything including videos of the incident.”

Caldes said the incident occurred near the end of the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV championship game at Rutgers University between the Mustangs and Jackson Memorial. Jackson Memorial defeated Brick Memorial, 42-14.

“There was less than five minutes left in the game when the incident occurred,” he said. A parent apparently assaulted a student who was upset about “inappropriate things” being said, he said. Someone was hit, but Caldes did not have specifics.

Witnesses told the Patch that a woman hit a student, and that the video depicts some adults who were trying to intervene. “I saw the dads run down there to help,” one reader told the Patch, requesting anonymity out of concern for a child who attends Brick Memorial.

A commenter on the Patch gave this account: ”I was there, a parent started a fire the coach chant and throw (sic) a megaphone into the student sections. The students refused to do it and then the parent went into the section and started shoving kids and hit one with the megaphone. That started it all.”

That description mirrors information from other sources, who said the parent in question was a woman and that a male student was hit with the megaphone.

Another woman posted on the Brick Patch Facebook page that her daughter had been punched in the face by a man during the altercation as she was trying to get out of the way. The man appeared to be drunk, the woman said.

“She does have swelling and a nice bruise under her right eye where she was hit,” the woman said. “It’s just sad that adults can’t control themselves.”

Witnesses also said the students “were really mature in general” and some backed away from the confrontation.

“I hope the football program, or any of the other school programs, are not affected by this,” one reader said. “I would feel sad for the kids.”

“Rutgers University campus police are conducting an investigation into the incident,” Caldes said. ”Building administration (at Brick Memorial) is conducting an investigation as well.”

The NJSIAA does not allow the sale of alcohol during its tournament events that are held at large regional venues such as MetLife Stadium, where some football championship games were held Saturday. High Point Solutions Stadium at Rutgers University, where Brick Memorial played Jackson Memorial, does not sell alcohol in the stadium to begin with, and stadium policy bans kegs, beer balls and similar items. The Rutgers policy does not ban alcohol completely, however.

NJSIAA policy bans alcohol at all of its sporting events, as do member high schools including Brick Memorial.

A call to NJSIAA Executive Director Steven Timko on the incident was not immediately returned.