Mo. students face charges

Mo. students face charges
By Tony McGuffey Guard Staff Writer
News Published on Friday June 29, 2007

Incidents of sexual hazing of young teens at a recent basketball camp at Lyon College were reportedly caught on tape and found by a parent of one of the students involved, according to Lt. Brenda Bittle with the Independence County Sheriff’s Office.
Bittle said several boys from the East Carter County R2 school district in Ellsinore, Mo. were attending the camp at Lyon College the week of June 10-13 when the incident reportedly happened.
According to reports filed in Missouri and Independence County, there were nine victims ranging in age from 13-14-years-old. The three suspects in the incident are said to be 17.
“They said the hazing happened during the lunch hour in the dorms and late at night after the counselors had all gone to bed,” Bittle said.
“The older students reportedly told the younger victims that they had to go through the hazing in order to get on the basketball team. They said it had been done for years and years and even the coaches went through it.
“Some of the incidents were caught on video on some of the students’ cell phones and a parent of one of the students later found the video,” Bittle said.
“Carter County Sheriff Greg Melton personally delivered a copy of the videos to me for our investigation, and the folks at Lyon College have been very cooperative.
“Our investigators have contacted all other schools and students involved in the sports camp and it seems no one else was involved in the hazing. It only involved the students from the Carter County school,” Bittle said.
Formal warrants against the three boys are expected to be completed for filing sometime early next week. The students blamed in the incident are then supposed to surrender themselves to the Independence County Sheriff’s Office to be served.
The three students will face charges in an Independence County juvenile court, according to Bittle.

Link to report : http://www.guardonline.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=40190&format=html