Immediately after Woburn football player endures many alleged assaults, dad and mom still left outraged by official response

The episode is the hottest in a wave of troubling alleged misconduct in Massachusetts substantial university sporting activities, a string of situations that have shaken communities from Duxbury to Danvers and outside of and have seized the consideration of human legal rights leaders and governing administration officers.

Coucelos mentioned he straight away described the incident to an assistant coach. His mother and father, Kevin and Jeanny Coucelos, stated Johnathan afterwards explained the episode in element in an interview with the Middlesex district attorney’s business office. And the family’s lawyer, Peter Hahn, claimed Johnathan testified at length about the case in Lowell Juvenile Courtroom, where a judge issued a six-month harassment prevention buy versus the pupil who allegedly groped him.

The other university student denied at the listening to that he sexually assaulted Johnathan, but the decide observed by a preponderance of the proof that an indecent assault and battery occurred, constituting grounds for the protective get, Hahn reported.

For Johnathan, the locker space mayhem marked only the commencing of his anguish. Just about a few months later, he has withdrawn from Woburn Significant Faculty, fearing for his safety, he explained, soon after enduring supplemental assaults, threats, bullying, and intimidation, which include a textual content from a soccer teammate that stated, “You really wanna get raped once more really don’t you.”

But no prison prices have been submitted however, no mentor has been held accountable, and the sophomore player who is alleged to have sexually groped him remained on the football crew for the relaxation of the time by way of Woburn’s match against its Thanksgiving rival Winchester at Fenway Park.

The World does not determine victims of alleged sexual assaults until they give their consent.

With the scenario stays below investigation, Hahn and Johnathan’s parents reported the college, police, and district attorney’s workplace have unsuccessful to adequately defend a boy who for the appreciate of soccer has discovered himself frequently victimized and frightened.

“It’s just outrageous that there are no prices,” Hahn said. “The more I locate out about the problem, I ponder what I’m going to obtain out next about how the university has mishandled this, how the law enforcement have mishandled it, how the DA’s business has mishandled it.

“There is no justice for Johnathan,” he said.

In a assertion, Woburn College Superintendent Matt Crowley said, “We admit and assistance the scholar and household that had the power to occur ahead to report this deeply troubling subject. We would like to state, without reservation, that the Woburn Public Colleges took this make any difference severely as soon as we acquired about it and that our reaction was detailed and complete.”

The Woburn law enforcement referred issues to the district attorney’s place of work, which issued a assertion expressing its boy or girl safety device and Woburn police have conducted various interviews of pupils, college, and coaches, and have examined video footage, text messages, and social media.

“Our business office is knowledgeable that a collection of altercations and threats are alleged to have taken place among the functions because the initial incident,” the Middlesex DA’s business said. “Police have continued, as lately as two days back, to get new data which has expected adhere to up investigation. Interviews of supplemental possible witnesses are ongoing.”

The moment the felony investigation has concluded, Crowley reported, the university district will conduct a whole administrative evaluate of the entire make any difference, perhaps with exterior consultants.

The seeds of Johnathan’s distress ended up sown early in the football period. Throughout a varsity match Sept. 10, he was among a team of underclassmen in the software who had gathered under the stadium bleachers, against team regulations. Johnathan stated a boy who had bullied him for various years continuously poked him, causing him to protect himself.

A struggle ensued. Law enforcement responded. And the coaches disciplined all the junior varsity players and freshmen on the staff by confining them to the faculty cafeteria for the 1st fifty percent of Woburn’s next varsity household match.

Johnathan claimed his teammates attacked him Sept. 25 to retaliate for the cafeteria punishment. He reported no coaches intervened when a group of sophomores and juniors billed from the varsity locker space down the corridor into the freshmen locker place and converged on him.

Superior faculty and youth coaches are considered dependable for supervising student-athletes and blocking abuse. Several hours later on on the times of the alleged attack, Johnathan mentioned, head varsity mentor Jack Belcher gathered the staff and claimed, with out right referring to the incident, that anybody who committed an assault and battery or sexual assault would be kicked off the workforce.

As it turned out, on the other hand, the university suspended the two gamers who allegedly punched and sexually molested Johnathan for five days every, according to his dad and mom and law firm. The player they accused of punching Johnathan did not return to the staff, but the other participant was welcomed back.

“What need to not be dropped here is the fact that our obligation to give a superior-excellent education and learning to all kids in Woburn consists of the two victims and offenders,” Crowley mentioned. “The law and the Commonwealth’s instructional rules make this quite clear.”

Johnathan and his parents, who are of Puerto Rican and Portuguese descent and recognize as persons of shade, claimed they think bias has played a position in the school’s managing of the incident. The participant who allegedly sexually assaulted him is white.

“If it was the other way all around, I’m rather positive I would have been expelled,” Johnathan said.

Crowley claimed the district responded “promptly and comprehensively” to the locker space incident, having “immediate corrective and remedial steps against other learners based on the information gathered.”

What is much more, he reported, the district has worked “tirelessly” with the spouse and children to implement steps to guarantee the student’s protection in school.

But Johnathan’s trauma only intensified soon after the locker home incident. He explained he was consistently bullied at school for not defending himself much more aggressively and for being regarded as a snitch.

On Oct. 18, he explained, he was punched several periods in a university toilet by a student who taunted him about not sticking up for himself.

On Nov. 9, a soccer participant allegedly sent him various offensive texts, which include one particular that questioned if he preferred to be raped once again. Another stated, “Did you get mind damage from currently being raped?”

On Nov. 10, a former group member allegedly entered Johnathan’s Spanish course, grabbed him by the shirt, and warned him to prevent snitching.

And on Dec. 1, Johnathan was riding a university bus when a pupil allegedly referred to as him a snitch and a pedophile and punched him in the deal with.

His dad and mom with the Globe shared screenshots of various other offensive, threatening, and scary texts he gained. They reported the abuse has not abated in spite of the district’s protection system, and they no extended could danger sending him to Woburn Large School.

Due to the fact last week, Johnathan has researched at home via Google Classroom, whilst his mom and dad attempt to enroll him in a faculty the place he feels safe.

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Bob Hohler can be achieved at [email protected].