Northpinellas: School disciplines baseball players

PALM HARBOR -- An incident of rough-housing by several members of the Palm Harbor University High School baseball team on a trip to Fort Lauderdale in early March has resulted in unspecified disciplinary action.

Two players held a third player down in a hotel room while a fourth student jumped on his back and rode him like a horse, said Pinellas County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Marianne Pasha. Meanwhile, a fifth student videotaped the incident. The St. Petersburg Times is withholding the names of the students involved.

The Sheriff's Office looked into the incident, but at the request of the student who was held down and his parents, no charges were filed, Pasha said.

The incident came to light when one of the students later told a teacher who accompanied the team on the trip and said "that he may have been involved in a hazing situation," Pasha said.

Principal Alec Liem said student confidentiality laws prevent him from discussing details of the case, but he said it was not hazing.

"This situation didn't include hazing at all," Liem said. Hazing involves some sort of initiation or an age difference, he said. That's not the case here, he said According to the sheriff's report, three of the students involved were seniors and two were juniors.

"There was an investigation that involved our own school administration and our school resource officer," Liem said, "and students have been disciplined."

Liem added that the expectation for student conduct while in the school extends to field trips.

In 1998, Liem suspended several Palm Harbor University High School baseball players for three to five days after they harassed two younger team members. On a bus ride, four juniors rubbed Atomic Balm, a muscle ointment that creates a burning sensation, on one freshmen and punched another freshman on the chest and arms. Later, Pinellas County School Board members criticized the suspensions as too lenient.

Liem said that case had no bearing on this one, and that it did not affect the disciplinary action taken.

According to Pasha, the incident occurred at 11 p.m. March 2 when the student walked into a hotel room where other ballplayers had assembled. The student was tackled onto a bed and two students held him down, Pasha said, as a fourth, "jumps on his back and rides him like a horse."

The student who jumped on the other student later told the teacher he was forced to sit on the student being held down "with his genitals uncovered," Pasha said. The teacher went to the student who was held down, and he confirmed the incident took place but said "he didn't want to cause any trouble by reporting it," Pasha said.

Liem called in the school resource officer, a sheriff's deputy, who interviewed all of the players involved. The deputy also obtained the videotape of the incident. The video contained about 10 seconds showing the student jumping on the other student and riding him, Pasha said. But "it doesn't show all of what happened according to other people," Pasha said. The student who was riding on the other student was wearing shorts in the portion of the videotape viewed by the school resource officer, Pasha said.

"The duration (of the incident) may have been longer than the tape suggests," Pasha said.

Eric Muskatevc, a 2000 graduate of Palm Harbor University High School and a friend of several of the students involved, said he saw the videotape the day after the incident and "it just looked like some kids were wrestling another kid."

Muskatevc, a correspondent with the St. Petersburg Times sports department, said he spoke with two of the students involved and that those students told him that they were suspended for nine days, beginning last Friday. The students also told Muskatevc that Liem has recommended expulsion or transfer to an alternative school, but that they have appealed that recommendation.

Muskatevc said a number of students think the penalty meted out is too harsh, and some have printed up T-shirts that read: "Not a haze, no 10 days."

School Board attorney John Bowen declined to comment on the details of the case.

Bowen said there was "an investigation of some activities on a baseball trip and appropriate disciplinary action was taken concerning that."

Bowen noted there was no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any coaches or volunteer chaperones on the trip. Team coach Greg Nichols declined to comment.

- Staff writer Pete Young contributed to the report. Staff writer Robert Farley can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or farley@sptimes.com.

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