Teammates Raped Seneca Valley Football Player: Lawsuit

GERMANTOWN, MD — A member of the Seneca Valley High School junior varsity football team alleges in a lawsuit that he was raped by his teammates in an unsupervised locker room in September 2018, news reports said.

According to multiple media outlets, the student — identified as "John Doe" in court documents — was sexually assaulted on Sept. 17, 2018, less than a month before four junior varsity football players at Damascus High School were raped in a locker room by their teammates.

"For several minutes, several football players held him down, forced his pants and underwear down, and penetrated, touched, assaulted and slapped John Doe," according to the March 9 lawsuit, obtained by WTOP.

In the suit, WTOP reports, "John Doe" said the county Board of Education, Seneca Valley Principal Marc Cohen, Athletic Director Jesse Irvin, varsity football coach Fred Kim, and junior varsity coach Cody Martin knew about previous sexual assaults in football locker rooms, but didn't do anything to prevent the attack on Sept. 17, 2018.

According to Bethesda Beat, the lawsuit was filed a month after three of the four Damascus High School victims filed a civil suit against the Board of Education and school officials.

That suit alleges that high school officials knew about a hazing ritual at Damascus known as "brooming," but ignored the warnings and mishandled the assaults because of the successful football program, according to The Washington Post.

SEE ALSO:

• Damascus Locker Room Unsupervised During Assault: Superintendent
• Embattled Principal Resigns Amid Hazing Sex Assault Scandal
• Locker Room Rape, Abusive Behavior To Be Investigated By Firm