Two coaches and an athletic director at a Tennessee high school were charged Thursday with failing to report allegations that four freshmen basketball players were sexually assaulted by older teammates during a road trip last month.
Three players have already been charged in the alleged rapes, and authorities are now conducting a broader investigation into accusations of "an ingrained culture of violence" in the basketball and football programs at Ooltewah High School outside Chattanooga, Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston said in a statement.
Last week, the school canceled the rest of its basketball season as investigators examined reports that upperclassmen regularly assaulted freshmen "under the guise of hazing."
The charges stem from attacks that allegedly occurred Dec. 23 while the basketball team was staying in a cabin in the town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, about 100 miles away, for a tournament over the holiday break.
The four victims were hit with pool cues and sexually assaulted, one so violently that he required emergency surgery, according to court documents.
Freshman players' parents first went public with the allegations.
Ooltewah's athletic director Allard J. Nayadley and coaches Andrew Montgomery and Karl Williams were charged under a state law that requires the reporting of suspected sexual abuse of children.
The three men were issued criminal summons in lieu of arrest and were scheduled to appear in court next week.
