Junior varsity football program suspended after bullying allegations surface

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — The Howard High School Junior Varsity Football team has been suspended without further notice after allegations of bullying inside the boys’ locker room.

The alleged incident occurred on Friday, September 25 before practice, when mom April Bridges says she learned the students go unsupervised for an hour.

Videos provided to WMAR-2 News show several members of the team grabbing, picking up and trying to force another team member, Bridges’ son, into the toilet.

“It's heartbreaking; it's really a true nightmare to endure this,” she said. “They tried to stuff him in a locker. Then they tried to dump him in the toilet. Everybody's in the locker room staring around with their cameras, laughing and chanting.”

She says students at one point also pulled down his pants and took his wallet and he was so beat up, he had to be taken him to the hospital.

“My once energetic, happy-going son is depressed. We haven't been able to sleep through all of this,” she said.

Bridges first learned something was wrong when her son came home early Friday afternoon in tears. She learned through a friend of her other son that his bike, a recent birthday present, had been stolen and vandalized.

When she came to the field at Howard High, she was surprised to find practice was still on.

There, she learned much more had happened, and it was all caught on video. She had learned of other incidents, too. A student had brought a wrench to disassemble his bike and hid it in the ceiling of the locker room. Another time, students sprayed bug spray inside his football helmet.

Her concerns following Friday's events, she says, were brushed off by coaching staff despite some team members and another parent informing them what had happened.

Brigdes called the police, who are investigating, as well as the school.

In an email sent to families on Monday, Principal Allen Cosentino wrote to families that the program was suspended, and that due to the involvement of minor children, the school is limited in what information can be shared. But he promised to continue to provide status updates on the program.

Each member of the JVF team is being met with individually, according to Cosentino’s messages to families.

Bridges says the suspension is a step in the right direction but is calling for full accountability, including criminal charges.

“He’s been beaten, battered, kidnapped, assaulted, sexually assaulted, false imprisonment, robbed,” she said. “I would like charges pressed to the full extent of what occurred to my child."