Brevard school board rejects Jenkins' call for Viera football season suspension

Following nearly four weeks of public outcry prompted by a recorded lewd hazing incident by Viera High football players, school board member Jennifer Jenkins called for the school's football season to be suspended until the state attorney makes a determination about the situation.

"If we haven't seen an investigation from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, and the state attorney's office has not even been in receipt of that investigation yet ... then why are we allowing this program to resume?" Jenkins said during Thursday night's board meeting.

Jenkins' request received the support of one school board member, Megan Wright, but was rejected by the others, meaning Viera High football will continue.

The incident, part of which was recorded in a 41-second video that went viral on social media the weekend of Aug. 19, involved Viera High School football team members simulating sexual acts on at least two students and throwing condoms on the ground. The students involved were wearing Hawk Nation gear in the locker room as they attempted to pull the pants off of one of their teammates.

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The season was suspended that weekend, with Superintendent Mark Rendell saying players would be required to take an anti-hazing course and attend a parent-team meeting held by the district. Several players were punished according to the student code of conduct, which classifies hazing as a level four offense. Offenses of this level can result in suspensions, expulsions or being sent to BPS' alternative learning center.

But only a week after the season was put on hold, Viera High completed their investigation of the incident, and the season was reinstated. At the time, the sheriff's office investigation was still ongoing. The state attorney's office said Thursday morning that they expect to receive the sheriff's office report in the coming days.

One student's family has come forward, with their attorney saying they plan to pursue criminal charges. FLORIDA TODAY is not naming that student, who is a freshman. The other student who was hazed had not been identified in Viera High's investigation, Jenkins said.

Rendell defended the handling of the incident Thursday, saying he followed the student code of conduct in terms of disciplining students involved.

"We feel like we've done everything that we were supposed to do in response, and if we haven't, then we'll learn from that," he said.

He added that he believed this was an isolated incident and not indicative of a cultural issue at Viera High, a point Jenkins disputed, saying that a student alleged that a similar incident happened previously but there was no documentation that showed a follow up on those claims.

"Not investigating tells the student ... that we don't care that it may have happened to them in the past and that we don't care to investigate if there truly is a pattern or a culture here," she said.

Jenkins criticized the handling of the situation, saying all students involved in the incident were as culpable as one another and should not be classified differently, that the meeting between parents and team members and the district should have been open to the public or press and that it wasn't okay to continue the season while one victim and a perpetrator have yet to be identified.

"I feel like we have rushed through this process and dropped the ball for our community, and I don't think we did the right thing here," she said. "As a parent, I would be livid if it was my kid. I would be livid."

Vice board chair Megan Wright agreed with Jenkins, saying the season should not have resumed until the investigation was completed.

"My heart breaks because there is a child in the middle of that video that is assaulted over and over and over again every time that video is played, and that child's life doesn't get to pick up and go back on the field somewhere or walk the halls of school the same or do any of the same things," she said.

Wright added that the communication out of the district has been lacking and that it "doesn't look good at all."

"Did we adequately teach the lesson to these children on how they're going to move forward and be better students and make sure that they are contributing to society and not doing things that are going to potentially hurt someone's life forever? I don't know that we have," she said.

Katye Campbell took a different approach, saying that she would support Rendell and the rest of the district in their decision to continue the season. She added that though they can't say exactly how many students were disciplined and what disciplinary actions they faced, citing FERPA, the district followed policy.

"We can't tell you what's happened to students, but we can tell you the punishment, the discipline for those kinds of activities are this," she said, referring the public to the student code of conduct.

School Board member Gene Trent agreed with Campbell, saying that just because the board wasn't "making a big deal about this" didn't mean that it wasn't being handled by the district.

"We have to respect the process, and if the findings come in later that it's different than what we were told, then we can handle it differently," he said.

School Board Chair Matt Susin agreed, and also shot down the idea that he hadn't reached out to the parents "the right way."

"When I reached out to the parent, I told her that there's a disgusting thing that happened, and it is wrong, and it is something that should never have happened, and I ... said, 'from the bottom of my heart, I apologize,'" he said.

Susin added that he had told both the identified boy's mother and father to reach out if they needed anything, and reached out to staff every day because he was concerned the students involved were "in a lonely place."

"When a full investigation comes forward, we would be able to make those judgements and until then, the superintendent is moving forward and making judgement calls," he said.

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @_finchwalker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard school board opts not to again suspend Viera High football