Five former students at Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Illinois, have been awarded $1 million to settle a lawsuit against the district and a coach claiming they were sexually assaulted in a soccer hazing ritual in 2012, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Each student was awarded $200,000, the paper reported, citing law firm Romanucci & Blandin as well as an announcement from Maine Township High School District 207.
According to the lawsuit, at least one of the male students claimed his teammates tore off his pants and underwear, pushed him to the ground, shoved his face in the dirt, punched him, grabbed his testicles, and sodomized him with fingers and sticks.
While the district hopes to reduce the cost of continuing this case in the courts, officials have always denied any wrongdoing. The students were disciplined immediately after the allegations surfaced and could be verified, and two coaches were fired in connection with the hazing ritual.
Michael Divincenzo, one of the fired soccer coaches, was tried in 2014 and found not guilty of misdemeanor hazing and battery, and a second coach, Emilio Rodriguez, was also fired but never charged in the incident.
Distrit 207 issued the following statement on November 8:
The Board has always denied and continues to deny that the district or any district administrators engaged in any wrongdoing related to the allegations in the lawsuit.
From the time the hazing allegations were made, the Board of Education, along with Dist. 207 and Maine West administrators, took the allegations and reports seriously.
From the offset, Dist. 207 reported all relevant information to and cooperated fully with the Des Plaines Police Department and Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services.
The settlement will bring to closure a matter that has weighed heavily on the entire community since 2012 and is, in the judgment of the Board, in the best of interests of all involved.
