High school cancels football season over bullying

Associated Press

PARLIN, N.J.

A town that found encouragement in its winning high school football team after the devastation of Superstorm Sandy was left to absorb another blow Tuesday after school officials canceled the season over allegations of bullying, intimidation and harassment among players.

School officials in Sayreville, childhood home of rocker Jon Bon Jovi, made the announcement Monday night during a meeting with the players’ parents. The district already had canceled and forfeited a game that was scheduled last week between Sayreville War Memorial and South Brunswick and announced that the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office was investigating the allegations.

“There was enough evidence that there were incidents of harassment, of intimidation and bullying that took place on a pervasive level, on a wide-scale level and at a level at which the players knew, tolerated and generally accepted,” Superintendent Richard Labbe said. “Based upon what has been substantiated to have occurred, we have canceled the remainder of the football season.”

Labbe said he could not discuss the investigation, and the prosecutor’s office has declined to release details. No charges have been filed, but Labbe said Prosecutor Andrew Carey told him there is credible evidence to back up the allegations of bullying and harassment in the program.

Sayreville sits next to the Raritan River and just inland from the Raritan Bay, site of devastating flooding from Sandy in October 2012. The town was one of those targeted by the state for a buyout program, and demolitions began earlier this year to improve flood protection.

Football was a constant through the storm’s aftermath, and the school has won three sectional titles over four years.

Sam Morris, 15, said he plays on the junior varsity team and would normally have been in pads and on the field Tuesday afternoon.

Morris said he hadn’t seen any of the conduct referred to by the superintendent and said players on the team were “upset, angry, annoyed.”

“I understand it’s his decision, but he went a little too harsh on this one,” Morris said.