A young man who has sued Maine Township High School District 207 over his claims that fellow members of a Maine West High School soccer team sexually abused him during a hazing ritual said he hopes the suit will prevent further incidents.
“Nobody needs to go through what I went through, because it’s not good,” he said in an interview with WGN. “It’s not a way of life.”
The former Maine West High soccer player — only identified as John Doe C — described publicly for the first time the abuse he suffered while on the team. The Tribune does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse.
The lawsuit also names the school’s principal and former soccer coach as defendants in the case.
During the summer of 2007, the man was an incoming freshman attending a summer camp with his soccer teammates when he was promoted to the varsity team.
According to the man and the lawsuit, filed last month in Cook County Circuit Court, he was participating in a group run when older members of the team tackled him to the ground, pushed his face into the grass, held him down and players then sodomized him with their fingers and foreign objects.
“They never really said much, they just kind of did it,” he said. “They did it like nothing happened.”
Several weeks later, he claims, a similar incident occurred again. This time, he said he decided to quit the team.
“There was something behind the scenes there. In my situation, before campus runs I would see my coach wink either before or after it happened,” he said. He later added: “Definitely, the coach was in on it.”
He said he was too embarrassed and ashamed to tell anyone else.
“Who was I going to tell?” he said. “If I was gonna tell my own peers, they were just gonna look at me and laugh at me in a way.”
The man’s lawyer, Antonio Romanucci, is also representing at least three other current or former Maine West students who claim they were the victims of hazing that included sexual or physical abuse.
The first to sue were the parents of a 14-year-old Maine West freshman who claims the boy was attacked in a similar fashion by a group of fellow soccer players last September.
Since the lawsuit was filed, others have come forward with additional counts of abuse, said Romanucci.
Last month, the school board passed a resolution suspending varsity soccer coach Michael Divincenzo, alleging he witnessed varsity soccer players haze younger players.
Six Maine West soccer players also have been petitioned to juvenile court on charges of misdemeanor battery and hazing.
Other school districts have re-evaluated their hazing policies in the wake of Maine West High School controversy.
“I won’t be satisfied until I know everybody at the top who knew about or should have known about this" has been disciplined, said Romanucci.
In additional to taking steps to terminate the coach, District 207 officials have discussed the hiring of an outside attorney to conduct an independent investigation into the alleged hazing and its handling.
In a statement released Thursday, the district also pointed out that the plaintiff who spoke to WGN today acknowledged that he never reported the alleged incidents to any school authority. The statement also “reiterate(d) our absolute commitment to eliminating any practices and traditions that might lead to hazing incidents.”
Tribune reporter Jonathan Bullington contributed.
nnix@tribune.com
Twitter: @nsnix87
Ex-Maine West player outlines alleged hazing attack
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