Is it a case of boys will be boys or something more sinister?
There's plenty of awkwardness to go around at Alhambra High School in Martinez, after a bizarre hazing game came to light last week. According to investigators, a group of football players bound a 15-year-old boy's legs together and punched him several times in the locker room.
The motive is not publically clear. Assistant Superintendent Rick Rubino told the CoCo Times, ""I guess they had targeted him for a reason. We don't know exactly why. There was a Facebook post saying he was arrogant, but we don't know."
The incident comes at a sensitive time, with a string of recent teen suicides around the country attributed to anti-gay harassment.
According to Rubio, it's the first such incident at the school in 15 years, a claim that will sound absolutely incredible to anyone who has ever spent any time in a high school.
Rubino said that after the incident, the victim finished putting on his football uniform. It was not clear how he was dressed -- if at all -- at the time of the attack.
School officials might not have caught the perpetrators if not for a cell-phone video of the incident, which was later confiscated and studied by administrators. Several of the football players have been suspended and kicked off the team.
A criminal investigation is also underway so the students could also face criminal charges.
In addition, the school has assigned staff to watch the students in the locker rooms. And although this case seems to be of the old-fashioned kind of hazing, the school has scheduled a seminar on cyberbullying and social networking on Oct. 12.
