Police investigating alleged sexual assault at high school
Genoa Township police are investigating an alleged sexual assault that occurred in the locker room at Westerville Central High School involving members of the school’s Warhawks football team.
The 14-year-old male victim, a member of the Westerville Central high school football team, reported the assault occurred on Aug. 9 at the high school, 7118 Mount Royal Ave., according to an incident report. He reported the alleged attack the next day.
Genoa Township police Chief Steve Gammill told The Dispatch that the allegations made by the victim include that he was knocked to the ground and kicked by multiple players. One player “possibly assaulted” the victim in a sexual manner, according to a statement from Gammill.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Dozens of interviews have been conducted so far as detectives work to determine what happened and a potential motivation for the attack, Gammill said.
“I know there may be many rumors out there about this incident, but we don’t deal with or address rumors,” Gammill said. “As a rule, we do not share specific details of any ongoing criminal investigation. We try hard to balance keeping the public informed, to the extent we can, on serious matters like this while not jeopardizing our investigation.”
Township police have a school resource officer at Westerville Central, Gammill said, and there is no indication at this point in the investigation that there needs to be additional officers or resources at the school.
Westerville City School District issued a statement Friday saying that the school is cooperating with the investigation.
“We will not be offering any additional comments at this time so as not to compromise the integrity of this process,” the statement said.
News of the alleged assault hung over the high school and the district as Westerville Central’s football team travels to Westerville North for a nonconference game at 7 p.m. Friday. The game was set to be played as scheduled.
Dispatch reporters Dean Narcisco and Bailey Johnson contributed to this story. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner