Parent sues school district over `brooming' incident

The father of a teenage boy assaulted during a hazing ritual known as “brooming” is suing Putnam City Schools and others, including a former football player charged with attempted rape, for more than $ 75,000 in damages.

Randy McAroy complains in a petition the school district was “specifically aware” of similar conduct that occurred before the incident involving his son and “failed to establish, adapt, implement and/or follow any rules, policies, procedures, code of conduct or protocols to assure students or athletes could participate safely and without fear of the same event occurring again to students.”

Putnam City West High School, former head football coach Corey Russell and three players accused of participating in the assault also are listed as defendants in the petition, filed this week in Oklahoma County District Court. The parent alleges negligence on the part of the school district along with violations of his son's federally protected civil and constitutional rights.

In the petition, McAroy complains Russell — no longer a coach at the school — was aware that the assault was imminent “and allowed the assault to continue at the hands of the defendant students he supervised.”

“Defendant, Russell, acquiesced in the assault by leaving the room and not taking action to stop the process or prevent the assault on the minor,” the petition states.

Oklahoma County prosecutors allege Dawson Michael McLain, who was 18 at the time, and three juvenile players restrained a 14-year-old player and penetrated him with a broomstick. The assault occurred Sept. 28 inside the school's varsity football locker room, police reported.

McLain of Bethany, now 19, was charged last month with attempted rape in the first degree by instrumentation. He was charged in October 2018 with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The younger students will be prosecuted in juvenile court, where records are not public.

The four players told police the “brooming” incident was a tradition passed down from class to class. The victim was clothed during the assault, Putnam City Campus Police reported. McLain and two other players held the victim while a fourth player “shoved the broomstick up his rear end,” police reported. Russell, who was placed on paid administrative leave after the assault, denied knowing about the “brooming” tradition or any type of hazing.

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Russell's aforesaid acts and conduct ... Plaintiff sustained physical injury and mental anguish, pain, and suffering,” the petition states.