The announcement was effective immediately — meaning that Friday evening’s game against Mogadore was canceled — and came with no elaboration, other than that the Mantua Village Police Department was investigating an “incident.”
Mantua Police confirmed that they were looking into the incident in a public message later Friday.
“The department at this time has opened a fact-finding investigation looking into allegations made to determine if criminal acts have occurred, and to what level, and to whom,” the department posted. “This investigation is ongoing and the School District has been cooperating completely.”
As of Monday morning, no new details had emerged. Mr. Toth’s Executive Secretary said she knew nothing, and that details would be posted as the school district received them. Toth told Portage County’s Record-Courier that all members of the football program would be interviewed by the administration and that only Friday’s Mogadore game had been officially canceled.
Rumors of hazing and bullying were circulating all weekend on social media. Some have said that a “group of seniors” beat up multiple Freshmen. Channel 19 posted rumors about “players on the football team beating up a band member.”
“If the nasty rumor floating around Portage County is true,” one Facebook post read, “[David Toth] has the opportunity to stand up against bullying and make a point to the children he is responsible for that they will never forget. Cancel the rest of the season and there’s a great chance that someone will speak out next time they know a teammate is doing something wrong.”
Friday evening’s game was to have been Mogadore’s homecoming. Mogadore Coach Matt Adorni said he does not yet know whether his undefeated team will be credited with the win.
This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2017.
And – as in all these cases – the coaching staff is baffled, confused, contorted and bewildered……while school administrators are shocked — shocked, I tell you — that they have to utter one word about bullying and hazing. And for the Mogadore coach worried about the standings — the OHSAA can officially rule it as a “forfeit”, which means that his team will be awarded the victory and computer points, or “no contest”.
With an upcoming 3rd vote, yes 3rd! for a new school levy worth millions, for a declining student population K-12 of 1500, you can’t imagine how important damage control is. The town is strongly divided with half turned against the liberal school who refuses to respect the vote. Now this disgrace. There is much more to this story then appears and the reason for the cover up.