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Two Black high school baseball players filed a lawsuit against their former Florida high school district for failing to intervene after they were targeted by teammates for refusing to participate in a grotesque hazing exercise, according to the Daily Mail.
Jay King, 18, and Judah Norwood,17, said in the lawsuit filed last week against the Pinellas County School District they were also targeted by racial slurs and ‘sexual depravity.’ The suit claims their former teammates at East Lake High School tried to force them to race naked with Oreo cookies wedged between their butt cheeks. And the loser of the ‘Oreo Run’ would have been forced to eat both cookies, the report says. They are seeking $15,000 in damages.
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King and Norwood both refused to participate, and as a result, their teammates bullied them and called them the n-word. An assistant coach also used the racist slur, which led them to transfer schools. Norwood ended up stop playing baseball.
Todd Hoover, a lawyer for the students, said there was a ‘lack of adequate supervision’ by the staff.
The district conducted an investigation, but found no evidence of wrongdoing by coaches or administrators.
The lawsuit states that some of the students teammates allegedly exposed themselves while warming up and would often touch each other inappropriately in front of their coaches. The coaches did nothing. The suit does not mention if the two were touched.
“I’m not a liar,” King said confronting the school board about the allegations at a meeting on Tuesday night. “Everything I said is true. Hazing, sexual harassment and bullying did occur.”
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King said he heard about hazing on the team before entering his senior year but didn’t believe it, the Tampa Bay Times writes.
“They were telling me about it in the fall, and I thought it was a joke,” King told the news outlet. “I didn’t take it serious until the day actually came up.”
The lawsuit charges that the students and their families suffered mental and emotional stress, including anxiety, depression, insomnia and low self-esteem due to the team’s ‘negligent supervision.’
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