XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
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   From: billsteele@more-liberalism.com   
      
   It came without warning.   
      
   It would start with a howling noise from a senior football   
   player at Sayreville War Memorial High School, and then the   
   locker room lights were abruptly shut off.   
      
   In the darkness, a freshman football player would be pinned to   
   the locker room floor, his arms and feet held down by multiple   
   upperclassmen. Then, the victim would be lifted to his feet   
   while a finger was forced into his rectum. Sometimes, the same   
   finger was then shoved into the freshman player’s mouth.   
      
   This disturbing hazing within the storied Sayreville football   
   program, as told to NJ Advance Media on Wednesday by the parent   
   of a player in the program, happened almost every day in the   
   locker room this fall, he said.   
      
   The allegations — revealed for the first time — provide details   
   to the events that sparked a criminal investigation by local and   
   county police, and prompted the cancellation of the remainder of   
   the Sayreville football season this week by Superintendent of   
   Schools Richard Labbe.   
      
   The parent, informed by his son and other parents close to the   
   investigation, is the first to come forward to reveal the hazing   
   practices Labbe has characterized as “incidences of harassment,   
   intimidation and bullying as constituted by the definition   
   within the anti-bullying statute that took place on a pervasive   
   level, on a wide-scale level, and at a level in which the   
   players knew, tolerated, and in general accepted.”   
      
   According to the parent, whose identity is being protected   
   because the parent feared retribution against the family and the   
   player, the routine was initiated when an upperclassman would   
   enter the locker room and make a wolf call or howling noise.   
      
   “[For] 10 seconds, the lights would go off and they would grab a   
   freshman and they would go on,” the parent said. “Right on the   
   floor. … It was happening every day. They would get the   
   freshmen.”   
   He added: “Kids would just sit around and witness [stuff] like   
   this.”   
      
   Detectives from the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office and the   
   Sayreville Police Department are investigating the allegations,   
   but officials have refused to reveal any specifics about the   
   case. The parent said his son and several other Sayreville   
   players have been questioned by police. No charges have been   
   filed. The parent also said he is in the process of retaining an   
   attorney.   
      
   “These parents here, they’re in shock,” the parent said. “We   
   never expected anything like this to happen. Your kid, he’s   
   going to school, school’s got to be a place where you think the   
   kid is the safest.”   
      
   When told of the specific allegations over the phone Wednesday,   
   Labbe declined to comment. He referred to his previous comments   
   calling the allegations “very serious.”   
      
   The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office declined comment on the   
   allegations detailed by the Sayreville parent. Also, David   
   Abromaitis, a detective in the office, declined comment   
   Wednesday when reached by phone.   
      
   The parent said the “ringleaders” involved in the hazing are   
   seniors.   
      
   MORE: Coaches should be fired if hazing allegations are true |   
   Politi   
   Madeline Thillet, speaking at Tuesday night’s board of education   
   meeting, said her son was one of the members of the team   
   interviewed by investigators. She downplayed the hazing while   
   protesting the cancellation of the season.   
      
   “I was at the police station with him when they were questioning   
   him,” she said. “They were talking about a butt being grabbed.   
   That’s about it. No one was hurt. No one died. I don’t   
   understand why they’re being punished. I think that the   
   forfeited game was punishment enough.”   
      
   The parent said he could not “understand how none of the coaches   
   were aware of it. As a coach, you know what’s going on in your   
   clubhouse. You know what’s going on in the locker room.”   
      
   On Oct. 1, Labbe said he was alerted to an anonymous allegation   
   made to Sayreville police about a serious incident of   
   inappropriate conduct —possibly more — by members of the   
   football team. The next day, the matter was turned over to the   
   Middlesex County prosecutor and Labbe canceled Sayreville’s   
   football games — varsity, junior varsity and freshman contests —   
   last weekend against rival South Brunswick.   
      
   Then, on Friday, in a separate incident, an attorney for   
   assistant coach Charles Garcia said his client had resigned   
   after details of his arrest for steroids possession surfaced.   
      
   On Monday, Labbe announced he was canceling the rest of the   
   season.   
      
   The hazing allegations have turned Sayreville’s no frills, blue-   
   collar community upside-down, as both local and national news   
   vans and media reporters have descended on the town, scouring   
   the streets and interviewing people in parking lots and strip   
   malls.   
      
   Many Sayreville residents have expressed outrage over the   
   cancellation of the football season. The varsity team, nicknamed   
   the Bombers, has made the playoffs in each of the past 20   
   seasons, and Sayreville has captured three state championships   
   over the past four years, feeding nearby Rutgers University with   
   a host of elite players.   
      
   Sayreville longtime football coach George Najjar declined   
   comment when reached by phone Wednesday.   
      
   MORE: Just the beginning of a legal firestorm for Sayreville?   
   More than a hundred Sayreville residents attended Tuesday   
   night’s previously scheduled board of education meeting to urge   
   the members to reconsider the decision to cancel the season. The   
   crowd, at times, grew heated and animated, but the board   
   affirmed the decision to end the football season.   
      
   Afterward, about a hundred people gathered under the lights on   
   the football field, lingering for about 15 minutes, gazing   
   across the impressive stadium, until it was time to go home.   
      
   Vernal Coleman and Sue Epstein of NJ Advance Media contributed   
   to this report.   
      
   Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com.   
   Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.   
      
   http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/10/sayreville_high_sc   
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