Sehome principal asks for trust as school works through ‘difficult’ football hazing event
The coaching staff for the Sehome High School football team is expected to remain intact Friday when the Mariners retake the field in the wake of last week’s forfeit caused by a “serious, confirmed” hazing incident by players on the squad.
Meanwhile, Sehome principal Sonia Cole called for the community to trust the school’s staff while it works through a difficult situation, rather than sinking to spreading rumors and name-calling or jumping to conclusions.
Bellingham Public Schools and Sehome leadership investigated reports of the hazing incident and confirmed specific hazing behavior that violated the district’s harassment intimidation and bullying policies and athletic code of conduct, district spokesperson Dana Smith told The Bellingham Herald in a statement Tuesday, Sept. 20.
Those findings led to the forfeiture of Sehome’s Northwest Conference football game against Sedro-Woolley, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 16.
“We are continuing to determine next steps for some of our athletes,” Tuesday’s statement read. “This week, we are working with the football program to address the issues we discovered, beginning with meetings and practices held yesterday. The team is preparing for games as scheduled.”
The Mariners’ next game is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, when they host Burlington-Edison at Civic Stadium.
Tuesday’s statement stated that no coaches or school staff were present during the hazing event, but it did not answer The Herald’s question of whether Sehome coaches were aware of the incident.
In a follow-up response to The Herald on Wednesday, Sept. 21, Smith said there were no changes to the Sehome coaching staff at this time. The varsity program has been led since 2017 by coach Kevin Beason. Smith added that the district could not comment further on personnel matters, but said “as a rule, we investigate matters of concern involving our employees.”
In Cole’s letter to Sehome families on Tuesday posted to the district website, Cole asked for the community’s help to learn and improve from the incident.
“There are some people in our community spreading a number of sensational rumors that are untrue and unhelpful,” Cole wrote. “If you have questions, please talk to me. I can’t share a lot due to student privacy laws, but name-calling and jumping to conclusions are not in alignment with our Sehome Core Covenants.
“I ask for your trust that my staff and I are working through a difficult situation with care and integrity.”
Cole reminded students and families about the district’s online, anonymous safety reporting tip line, encouraging any student who believes they are a victim of harassment, intimidation or bullying to use it or notify a school staff member to help let the school and district be aware of what occurred.
In this instance, Cole wrote she hoped everyone could learn and improve.
“Our school and district leadership team are committed to supporting our football program as they move forward, as we would any group of students who needed support to move forward, learn and do better,” Cole wrote. “Our staff will continue to treat all students with dignity and privacy.”
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association allows hazing incidents to be handled on the local school level, Sports and Activities Information Director Casey Johnson told The Herald in an email Wednesday, adding “each individual school district has the authority to deal with these matters based on the information that is provided directly to them.”
Because of that, Johnson said the WIAA does not have any statistical data on how often hazing incidents occur among high school sports programs in Washington state and the organization defers to school districts to comment on them.
But the WIAA has taken steps to make sure high school coaches within Washington state are better educated about the dangers of hazing, bullying and harassment.
In May of 2021, the WIAA Representative Assembly passed an amendment to rule 20.0.0 in the Official WIAA Handbook changing the requirements for coaching education classes all paid and volunteer coaches must take every three years.
Those coaching courses now must include at least an hour of instruction on the legal aspects of coaching, now including the topics of bullying, hazing and harassment. Additional hours of instruction must focus on pyscho/social foundation and diversity, equity and inclusion topics.
Following the rule change, Johnson wrote that the association’s Coaches School event last summer and Athletic Director Fall Workshops dedicated time to address harassment, intimidation and bullying and the WIAA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee last year launched a reporting form for individuals to report instances of abuse.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
