The Bixby (Okla.) school board has not yet taken any action after investigating allegations that a 16-year-old high school student was attacked and raped with a pool stick by his football teammates at a team event at the Bixby superintendent’s home in September. The Bixby police and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation have also launched an investigation.
According to a report from the Tulsa World, which first broke the news last month of the allegations and investigations, the school board deliberated for seven hours on Thursday but decided against taking action.
The Bixby school board released a statement that read, in part:
The Board is close to making a determination on the specific action(s) it will take related to the incident. That said, we will not be taking any action tonight. However, we will have a special meeting during the week of December 18, 2017, and will announce what action(s) will be taken based on the information we have collected and reviewed.
According to court documents filed in Tulsa County District Court, and obtained by Tulsa World, the alleged assault likely took place on Sept. 27, two days before the football team’s homecoming game. The documents included details from victim’s interview with police about the incident. From the affidavit:
While upstairs, three football players held him down while a fourth player stuck a pool stick into his anus, through his shorts. While this took place, another football player videoed the incident on a cellular telephone.
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The victim said that the other football players in the room were laughing during the assault. The victim also said that another player was blocking the door during the assault. After the assault, which caused significant pain, the victim immediately left the residence.
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The victim said a similar incident had also happened at a team function at the same location during the 2016 football season.
The documents also show that investigators obtained search warrants for the cellphones of Bixby High School Principal Terry Adams, Superintendent Kyle Wood, Athletic Director Jay Bittle, Head Football Coach Loren Montgomery, and four juvenile suspects. From the Tulsa World:
The search warrants, filed in Tulsa County District Court on Nov. 27, say probable cause had been shown that the various items are “subject to search/seizure upon one or more grounds as it contains evidence relating to a violation of” state statutes on first-degree rape, failure to report child sexual abuse, conspiracies thereof, and/or accessory to said crimes.
The newspaper reports that the school board in under intense pressure to take action, and notes that the school board Vice President Lisa Owens “has participated in all of the meetings at which the board has discussed the internal investigation,” even though her own son is a Bixby football player.