The families of two football players from Lake Zurich High School have filed suit against the school district, claiming coaches and administrators "turned a blind eye" to "hazing, harassment (and) bullying" that included "forcing teammates into sexual acts," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday morning, comes weeks after Lake Zurich High’s athletic director, head football coach and an assistant coach submitted their resignations in the wake of alleged hazing by players that led to a police investigation.
Chicago attorney Antonio Romanucci said the two students whose families he represents in the lawsuit "fell victim to the abuses of bullying and hazing on the football team," which he said in a news release included players "forcing teammates to strip naked and … un-consensual sexual assault."
Police concluded their investigation without filing criminal charges, though last month the high school athletic director Rolando Vazquez, along with head football coach David Proffitt and assistant coach Chad Beaver resigned amid an investigation commissioned by Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95.
Both investigations were prompted by a report from a school security guard that he had seen football team players engaging in what school officials would later call "inappropriate" and "egregious" behavior in the locker room Oct. 27.
Besides District 95 and Vazquez, Proffitt and Beaver, the suit also names as a defendant Superintendent Kaine Osburn and another assistant football coach, William Stutzman.
The defendants "knew, or should have known, that the Lake Zurich High School Football Team had a long-standing custom, tradition or practice of assaulting team members in a sexual manner and forcing them to go through and perform sexual acts without their consent," the suit states.
The district released a statement saying officials don’t comment on pending litigation but that the district "is committed to creating a positive culture that does not tolerate hazing of any kind."
Romanucci asserted that hazing has been a long-standing practice on the football team.
"We have very solid and reliable evidence that these rituals have been going on for at least 20 years," he said. "The brotherhood that existed in Lake Zurich High School was able to keep these rituals quiet for years and years by using ‘Lord of the Flies’-type tactics, such as intimidation, harassment, exclusion and fear to keep themselves from ratting out on each other."
Tribune reporter Duaa Eldeib contributed.
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