By Linda M. Van Drie Andrzjewski, Director of Athletics and Assistant Professor, Wilmington University
After a rape of a high school boys’ basketball player at Ooltewah High School in Tennessee, the Hamilton County Board of Education (HCBE), the school’s principal, James Jarvis, director of athletics, Jesse Nayadley, and head boys’ basketball coach Andre Montgomery, were listed as defendants in a civil suit in the U.S. District Court. The case states that all parties were in violation of Title IX and were responsible for being aware of a culture of hazing and bullying at the high school, but failing to stop it. This culture led to the eventual sexual assault of a freshman basketball player, John Doe. Both Nayadley and Montgomery were also charged in criminal court for failing to report child abuse as required under Tennessee state law. Nayadley accepted a pre-trial diversion resolution that required training and community service; Montgomery’s trial has been moved to October.
The sexual assault took place during a holiday basketball tournament in Gatlinburg, TN. The Ooltewah High School varsity boys’ basketball team traveled in the personal vehicles of the head coach (Montgomery) and assistant coach, Karl Williams. There were 14 students on the trip, four freshmen and ten upperclassmen. Also on the trip were Coach Montgomery’s wife and 12-year-old daughter. The trip took place between December 19-23, 2015; the team and coaches stayed in a cabin. The case states that the students were left unchaperoned for hours at a time, with the coaches staying in the upstairs bedrooms, and the students staying downstairs. On the 19th, all four freshmen were shoved into the hot tub against their will. Coach Montgomery was informed of the incident and told the upper classmen they would be punished through physical activity. On December 20-21 three freshmen were prodded in the buttocks with pool cues and reportedly yelled out; however, none of the coaches responded. On December 22nd, two sophomores grabbed and held down John Doe, while assailant K.J. used both hands to ram the pool cue through two layers of clothing and sodomizing Doe. Two freshmen found Doe and alerted Montgomery and Williams, who found him lying in feces, urine, and blood. Neither Montgomery or Williams reported the sexual assault to either law enforcement, Department of Children’s Services, or a juvenile judge, as required under Tennessee law, T.S.A. § 37-1-605 (a) (4).
Montgomery and Williams took Doe to John LeConte Medical Center, where he was admitted around 10:30 p.m. At some point in the evening, Montgomery contacted Nayadley, who was also in the area. Around 12:20 a.m., a nurse at the hospital contacted the Gatlinburg police department to report the assault. Detective Rodney Burns arrived shortly thereafter and began investigating the assault. Doe was examined and discharged at 2:35 a.m. Doe returned to the cabin with the coaches and Detective Burns to gather his things and leave. He began to feel worse and was sent back to the hospital. Doe was transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center Trauma Service in Knoxville where he underwent emergency surgery to repair damage to his rectal wall and bladder and to remove the tip of the pool cue that had been lodged inside of him.
Back at the cabin, Detective Burns obtained permission from the student’s parents to question them. After being read their rights, all three assailants confessed to the assault on Doe. At this point, none of the other students’ parents were notified of the incident. The three assailants were sent home, but the other students on the team remained in Gatlinburg to finish the tournament. On December 23, Superintendent Rick Smith, Assistant Superintendent Lee McDade, and principal Jarvis were all informed of the incident. No one contacted law enforcement or the Department of Children’s Services. Smith alerted the HCBE to an “incident” which occurred on the trip, but did not elaborate as to the details. The HCBE was not fully informed of the assault on Doe until December 30, 2015. That same day, the Department of Children’s Services intake hotline received a referral about Doe’s assault.
Ooltewah canceled the remainder of the boys’ basketball season on January 6, 2016. On January 14, 2016, criminal charges were filed against Nayadley, Montgomery, and Williams for failing to report the sexual assault. In late January, Superintendent Smith stepped down from his position.
In March, 2016, the HCDE school board retained Courtney H. Bullard of Spears, Moore, Rebman, and Williams, P.C. to conduct an independent investigation. Bullard’s investigation focused on the climate of the basketball program regarding hazing, bullying, and sexual harassment; a review of the high school and HCBE policies and procedures regarding hazing, bullying, and sexual harassment; and a review of training for students-athletes and athletics personnel regarding bullying, hazing, and sexual harassment.
Bullard’s report found that, prior to the assault on Doe, there was a culture of hazing on the varsity basketball team. Upperclassmen described that “racking in” of the freshmen was a common practice. “Racking in” involved upperclassmen turning the lights out in the locker room after locking or blocking the doors. Freshmen were grabbed and punched from the neck down for approximately 20-30 seconds as a way to bring freshmen into “the big leagues”. The “freshmen rack” occurred over a period of about four weeks. While all players received training on bullying, those interviewed did not consider it bullying, and no freshmen reported the incidents, indicating that there was not adequate training to show understanding of what constituted bullying.
The report also found that both Montgomery and Williams were aware of “excessive horseplay” on the team and often punished the team through physical activity. While no students reported the “racking in” to the coaches, Bullard stated that it is was highly likely they had knowledge of the incidents based on the following information:
Montgomery’s office is adjacent to the boys’ locker room. He would have heard the banging around in the locker room.
Montgomery would often walk into the locker room when the lights were off and turn them back on and tell the team to “knock it off”.
Montgomery heard players discuss the “rack”.
A television set in the locker room had been broken due to excessive horseplay.
Montgomery was required to monitor study hall from 2:30-4:00 p.m. However, these sessions were often left unsupervised. At times students got into arguments or fights.
Bullard’s report found that that Ooltewah High School provided substantial efforts to combat bullying through significant training of its teachers and students. The school did not provide adequate training on hazing. While hazing is mentioned in the Code of Conduct, few students comprehend what constitutes hazing. Further, administrators appeared to have a mentality that hazing “does not happen here”.
Finally, the report found that there were significant issues with respect to HCDE meeting its obligations under Title IX. Under the law, all school districts must designate a Title IX coordinator with proper qualifications and training. This person must respond to any complaints under Title IX, including those of sexual discrimination and harassment. The HCBE designated Ms. Marsha Drake as the Title IX coordinator. However, Ms. Drake lacks the training and qualifications to perform these duties and has several other responsibilities within the district. The Bullard report also noted that while Ms. Drake was designated as the district’s Title IX Coordinator, another individual has been handling many of the duties without her knowledge. Bullard also found that that the administration and staff does not receive annual Title IX training. There is an overall lack of training and a lack of a formal reporting and response structure.
The most recent incident involving Doe was seen as an escalation of events leading up to his assault in Gatlinburg. As mentioned in the Bullard report, Montgomery was aware of the “racking in” of freshmen and failed to do anything about it. One of the assailants also targeted Doe with gender-based slurs, calling him “bitch made”. Other team members call Doe a “faggot”. Upon hearing the slurs, Montgomery told Doe to “man up”. On other occasions, the coaching staff would refer to the team as “ladies” to criticize them. The main assailant began targeting Doe in November, apparently concerned that Doe may start over him. Other than the gender-based slurs, he also physically beat Doe during a study hall session. Montgomery was aware of the animosity between the assailant and Doe but did nothing to protect Doe.
In addition to the information found in the Bullard report, the school district also came under fire for a history of allowing sexual harassment to take place. Before the Gatlinburg incident, the district failed to act on reports of the inappropriate behavior of two individuals who were teachers and coaches. Stan Evans was a teacher and coach at the middle school from 1979-1998. Some records indicate that he may have molested over 38 young men. In 1997, a report was filed in the Sheriff’s office by one of former students, Michael Mercer, after his attempts to alert the school were ignored. Evans was not prosecuted for the alleged crimes due to the expiration of the statute of limitations on the case and because he resigned from the school. In 2002, a separate lawsuit was filed against HCBE for failing to address Evans’s actions. This case was dismissed by the Circuit Court again due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
One year after Evans left the district, Jason Hamrick began teaching and coaching at the high school. In his 15 years at the school, his file was full of complaints. The complaints included Hamrick hired boys to do manual labor at his house, had slept in a hotel room with three boys while chaperoning a school trip, and had boys spend the night at his house on more than one occasion. Hamrick eventually resigned in 2014.
In both of these cases, the Assistant Superintendent of HCBE at the time was Rick Smith.
Because of the pervasive nature of bullying and hazing found at Ooltewah High School as documented in the Bullard report and the history of a lack of response to complaints of sexual harassment by members of HCBE, John Doe filed a lawsuit in Federal Court. The defendants in the case were named due to being aware of a culture of bullying, hazing, and abuse that was prevalent in the school system and their subsequent failure to follow laws and policies addressing these situations. The sexual assault against Doe was a culmination of a hazing culture that was prevalent at Ooltewah High School. The case alleges that the defendants failed to investigate prior claims of sexual discrimination (during Evans and Hamrick’s tenure) and failed to investigate hazing and bullying at the high school. The suit charges the defendants with failing to comply with Title IX in their training and response to the actions on the boys’ basketball team, as well as violating several Tennessee state laws including:
Violation of the Tennessee Anti-Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Statute, T.C.A. § 49-6-4503, for failing to investigate incidents of harassment and report them to the school board;
Violation of T.C.A. § 49-2-120 for failing to enforce the HCBE policy against hazing and bullying;
Violation of T.C.A. § 49-6-4503 for failing to investigate and inform parents and report harassment, bullying, within the Ooltewah High School basketball team;
Violation of T.C.A. § 37-1-403 for failing to report prior known abuse thus creating an environment where misconduct was tolerated and encouraged to continue due to a lack of consequence; and
A violation of the Tennessee Government Tort Liability Act § 29-20-205 for failure to properly supervise Doe and protect him from harm.
At this time, the Federal case is pending. All three assailants in the case were tried in juvenile court. Two were convicted of aggravated assault for holding Doe down during the incident. The third assailant, K.J., was convicted of aggravated rape and assault.
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Rainwater, K.A. (2016). All three defendants in Ooltewah rape case found guilty, two receive reduced charges. Times Free Press. Retrieved from: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/aug/30/all-three-defendants-ooltewah-rape-case-found-guilty-two-reduced-charges/384141/.
Rainwater, K.A. (2016). Former Ooltewah basketball coach asks that charges be dismissed. Times Free Press. Retrieved from: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/sep/01/former-ooltewah-basketball-coach-asks-charges/384420/.
Rainwater, K.A. (2016). Lawsuit filed in Ooltewah High School rape case names school board and school employees as defendants. Times Free Press. Retrieved from: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/sep/09/lawsuit-filed-ooltewah-high-school-rape-case-names-hamilton-county-board-education-and-school-employees-defendants/385842/.
Smith, C. (2016). Tennessee superintendent steps down as disturbing details of alleged rape revealed in leaked indictment. USA Today. Retrieved from: http://usatodayhss.com/2016/tennessee-superintendent-steps-down-as-disturbing-details-of-alleged-rape-revealed-in-leaked-indictment.
