6 Athletes Suspended in Attack on Schoolmate

Six high school football players were suspended this week in Torrance and are under criminal investigation in an alleged attack last month on a younger player who taunted them with racial slurs, according to school officials.

The West High School varsity football players reportedly tied up a player on the freshman team and poked him in the buttocks area with a broomstick, said John Schmitt, an assistant superintendent of the Torrance Unified School District.

The varsity players, four of whom are black and two of whom are white, may have been retaliating because the younger boy uttered racial slurs and derided the varsity team, Schmitt said.

The victim was wearing pants and was not hurt in the Sept. 2 incident in the team’s locker room. The school semester had not yet started, but the football team had begun preseason practice. Schmitt said a coach or other school staff member may have been in the locker room.

The incident took only a few minutes, and the victim never reported it, Schmitt said. He said school officials learned of the alleged attack this week from a parent of a friend of the victim.

School officials and Torrance police are interviewing the boys and school staff members to determine what further action should be taken, Schmitt said.

Schmitt said that the district considers the incident to be very serious, but that there is a clear possibility it was a prank. “I’m optimistic this can be closed up pretty quickly,” he said.