WASHINGTON – Five members of the football team at DeMatha Catholic High School in Maryland are out of the program after players reportedly hired prostitutes following a game in North Carolina last weekend.
The Washington Post – citing two people with knowledge of the incident, including the parent of one player who has left the school – reports team members allegedly hired prostitutes from a call service and some engaged in sexual activities with the prostitutes in a hotel room at a Holiday Inn near the Raleigh-Durham Airport.
DeMatha principal Dr. Daniel McMahon confirmed Friday an investigation into the incident referred to by the Post, and said the school first learned of it on Tuesday. The incident reportedly occurred at about 5 a.m. last Saturday after DeMatha’s 52-14 win against Hillside in North Carolina the previous night.
“The school community is saddened and hurt by the actions of these few who do not reflect the character of the community,” McMahon told reporters and says in a release issued Friday.
McMahon says 18 adults were supervising the trip for DeMatha, a school in Hyattsville with a national reputation for athletics. He says final bed checks were conducted at 1:30 a.m., and hallways were monitored until after 4:30 a.m.
After learning of the incident, McMahon says the school investigated and notified five students and their families they would be facing disciplinary procedures, although he declined to discuss any punishments specifically. The Post reports that two players have left the school, two are facing possible expulsion and another was expected to have a disciplinary hearing Friday.
A hotel manager who checked in the team says the players were nice and courteous to the staff.
Larry Turner, vice president of hotel operations for Daly Seven, which owns that Holiday Inn, said Friday in a statement that the team was “chaperoned adequately.”
“We received no complaints,” he said. “We have since been approached by law enforcement, and we are cooperating in their investigation.”
None of the five were starters on the team but they are minors, the Post says. McMahon says authorities in the Archdiocese of Washington and in the states of Maryland and North Carolina were notified after the incident.
The Archdiocese of Washington says it strongly supports the leadership at DeMatha and offers prayers to the school community.
Read the full report here.
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