{"id":122699,"date":"2025-09-06T08:01:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/122699\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T08:01:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T08:01:20","slug":"federal-lawsuit-accuses-ursuline-high-school-football-players-of-hazing-sexual-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/122699\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal lawsuit accuses Ursuline High School football players of hazing, sexual assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WOIO) &#8211; A now former freshman football player and his family filed a federal lawsuit accusing Youngstown\u2019s Ursuline High School football players of hazing, sexual assault, and disseminating child pornography.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Amid the newly filed lawsuit, the school cancelled its Friday night game against Farrell. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">According to the lawsuit, during a nine-day football team trip in June, the player endured an \u201cinitiation\u201d that was a part of the team\u2019s \u201chazing culture.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chandralaw.com\/blog\/federal-civil-rights-lawsuit-filed-against-youngstown-ohios-ursuline-high-school-officials-and-football-players-for-hazing-assault-and-cover-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.chandralaw.com\/blog\/federal-civil-rights-lawsuit-filed-against-youngstown-ohios-ursuline-high-school-officials-and-football-players-for-hazing-assault-and-cover-up\">Attorney Subodh Chandra<\/a> is representing the player and his family. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe suit alleges a comprehensive set of wrongs against the plaintiffs that includes everything from sexual assault, hazing, dissemination of child pornography, and a variety of other allegedly criminal acts across four states,\u201d Chandra said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The lawsuit claims the player was attacked, assaulted, and stripped by several other players while it was filmed and posted on the team\u2019s group Snapchat. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The complaint goes on to allege the coaches were aware of the hazing but did nothing to stop it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt also alleges cover up, it alleges intimidation, there\u2019s a comprehensive set of poor judgements that are alleged in this lawsuit,\u201d Chandra said. \u201cIncluding, the original sin which is the alleged negligent hiring, supervision, training, and retention of the coaches to begin with.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Chandra said the player, who has since transferred to a different school, is traumatized by what he allegedly suffered. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe student is experiencing a great deal of trauma, this student is survivor of a sexual assault, according to the lawsuit,\u201d Chandra said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ursuline High School released a statement to 19 News. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">\u201cThe safety and well-being of our students is Ursuline High School\u2019s top priority. Ursuline parents can and should feel confident that their sons and daughters are in a safe environment every day. To that end, we want to highlight the steps we\u2019ve taken in regard to the allegations about the football program. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">After the students and coaches returned from the trip in question, one family made a formal report to the school alleging misconduct. Once informed, Ursuline\u2019s administration timely opened an investigation. Immediately thereafter, Diocesan representatives and local authorities were notified of the allegations. Both Ursuline and the Diocese of Youngstown continue to cooperate fully with the authorities\u2019 investigation, which is ongoing. Both out of concern for the identity of minors and at the request of the police, Ursuline has not discussed the allegations in public. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">Disciplinary actions against some students most directly involved were imposed under Ursuline policies. Other students involved voluntarily left the football program or Ursuline entirely before discipline could be imposed. Further administrative actions will be communicated once the investigations and legal process are complete. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">In the meantime, an increased chaperone presence and mandatory training reviews are in place to further protect student safety.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">The Ursuline Board has decided to cancel the game against Farrell scheduled for September 5th.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Chandra said the player and his family want accountability to come from this lawsuit. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhat we do hope and what my clients hope is that ultimately that there will be so much accountability here that this will have a significant impact on other institutions indulging the kind of nonsense alleged in the suit here and making sure that children are safe,\u201d Chandra said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WOIO. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WOIO) &#8211; A now former freshman football player and his family filed a federal lawsuit accusing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,86395,86394,2462,85,86393],"class_list":["post-122699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-football-hazing","tag-hazing","tag-lawsuit","tag-sports","tag-ursuline-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}