A “serious incident” inside the varsity football locker room at Thomas S. Wootton High School prompted school officials to cancel Wednesday’s practice and call a meeting of players’ families, according to messages from Wootton’s principal to parents.
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The principal, Kimberly Boldon, did not specify what happened in the emails. Reached on Wednesday, Montgomery County school and police officials also declined to provide details.
Just after 4 p.m. Tuesday, the county’s 911 center received a call from school officials about an assault at Wootton “that was believed to be sexual in nature,” according to officer Casandra Durham, a county police spokeswoman. Investigators from the department’s sex crimes unit went to the school, interviewed several students and adults, “and it was determined that the incident was not a sexual assault,” Durham said.
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As of Wednesday afternoon, she added, the matter was being handled by Montgomery County Public Schools officials following the terms of a memorandum of understanding between the two agencies. That indicates that any crime that may have occurred was relatively minor.
Police were conducting “no further criminal investigation regarding this incident and no charges are forthcoming at this time,” Durham said.
The immediate call by school officials to the county’s 911 center appears in sharp contrast to an incident inside the junior varsity football locker room at Montgomery’s Damascus High School in 2018. In that case, Damascus officials had credible information that a sexual assault occurred but delayed calling police for 12 hours and instead launched their own internal investigation of what happened. In the end, four players were charged with rape and attempted rape of four of their teammates while wielding a broomstick.
A football locker room, a broomstick and a sex assault case roil a school
The Damascus case prompted internal school system reviews, which determined there had been a breakdown in locker room supervision. Officials vowed to tighten up locker room monitoring throughout their system.
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At Wootton, the first public notice that something had happened in the locker room appears to have been an email Tuesday night that Boldon wrote to the parents of football players.
“Please note that football practice will be canceled tomorrow afternoon to follow up on the incident,” Boldon wrote. “We also ask that you speak with your children about this event. If they recorded the event, please ask them to delete and not share it.”
She followed up with another email to football team families Wednesday morning, amending her suggestion to delete video of the incident.
“I realize that our earlier request to delete video was made to avoid social media intrusion,” Boldon said. “However, if there are videos, we believe it could be helpful in the school level investigation. Thus, if your child has a video, we ask that you bring any video to the administration’s attention.”
School system attorney: Attack by broomstick-wielding football players charged with rape didn’t constitute sexual assault
Cynthia Simonson, president of Montgomery’s countywide council of PTAs, said that while it seems important that students not share the video, she was taken aback by the early request to delete it.
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“I am shocked in this day and age, with the number of issues that MCPS has had related to inappropriate behavior .？.？. that anyone would make the error of asking people to delete any evidence of wrongdoing,” she said. “What is the professional development and training? To me, this is responsibility 101.”
Montgomery County police said they are not aware of the existence of any video related to the incident.
Also Tuesday, the principal emailed parents of all Wootton students.
“I am reaching out to provide you with information about a serious incident that occurred today, Tuesday, November 2, involving members of our varsity football team,” Boldon wrote.
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A staff member became aware of the incident, Boldon wrote, and reported it and police “were immediately called.”
Police investigated the allegations before the team left the school and found no evidence of a sexual assault, Boldon wrote.
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“School administration will now investigate the matter as a disciplinary issue and will also determine if students were properly supervised in accordance with [school system] policies and procedures.”
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