A total of nine Stevens Point Area Senior High athletes received suspensions Wednesday after an investigation into a hazing event.
The athletes, five football players, two soccer players, one golf player and a member of the pom pon squad, are receiving a number one sanction under the rules of the District Athletic Code.
The nine people, who Superintendent of Schools Emery Babcock wouldn't identify, will miss 20 percent of the contests of a season's competitive schedule. That means the football players will be forced to sit out two games and the soccer players four games.
Babcock said the athletes violated Section 5 of the Inappropriate Behaviors portion of the school district's athletic code.
The section says "Negative acts against persons or property (involvement in behaviors which are viewed as contrary to accepted moral and ethical standards including profanity, other abusive language, vandalism, fighting, cheating on tests or school work, etc.)" will subject the participant to loss of participation in athletics.
"We looked at other options, but the athletic code says this is it," Babcock said.
After the incident, which occurred Thursday, Aug. 12, district officials hired an independent detective agency to investigate. At a closed school board meeting last week, Attorney Dean Dietrich said, "The investigation has shown that student athletes were involved in an incident where sophomore student athletes were paddled by senior students."
The suspensions don't take effect until Tuesday, September 7, which Babcock said would allow time if appeals are made to the school board.
"There wouldn't be a lot of time for appeals to be heard," he said when asked why the suspensions weren't effective immediately. "We thought that it was only fair to the kids and families."