Tamaqua hazing incident led to forfeiture of football game

Tamaqua Area School Board President Larry Wittig addressed a “hazing” incident involving members of the school’s football team that resulted in the forfeiture of its District 11 semifinal game this past weekend.

Speaking during the board’s committee meetings Tuesday evening, Wittig said he wanted to address rumors circulating on social media.

“No. 1, the school district is not — is not — about to push anything under the rug or hide things or prevent people from knowing things,” he said. “Having said that, these students have rights, the perpetrators, the victims, all those have rights, and they’re also young and you don’t go out blasting things (on social media) particularly immaturely.”

The incident is under investigation by Tamaqua police, the school’s police force and district administrators.

A published report that some students had been suspended was refuted Wednesday by Superintendent Ray Kinder.

“We have not specified a specific number of students, nor indicated where they would be in our disciplinary process,” Kinder said via email Wednesday. “At this time, we do not have plans to release any additional statements.”

Wittig said the athletic staff knew nothing about the incident, and neither did a football team counselor who spends more time “teaching life skills and good choices than they do football,” he added.

“This is something that happened way beyond what they knew about,” he said.

Wittig noted that the incident occurred after 6 p.m. Thursday and by 10:30 p.m., a meeting was held among police, administrators and parents. The investigation continued Friday, Saturday and Monday.