Antioch High JV football game cancelled due to sexual assault, bullying by players

By Allen Payton

According to a post by Principal Louie Rocha on the Antioch High School Facebook page, this week’s Junior Varsity football game against cross-town rival Deer Valley High has been cancelled due sexual assault and bullying by some of the players.

The Thursday morning post reads: “A message from Principal Louie Rocha of Antioch High School: Please note that due to the misconduct of several members of the Antioch High JV football team, the game vs. Deer Valley for this Thursday has been canceled. Antioch High does not condone or tolerate any level of sexual assault and bullying. Any students involved in this type of unacceptable behavior will be held accountable. At our school, we take pride in offering and exposing our students to educational and awareness programs on these topics. For example, we recently hosted the Consent is Everything assembly for all our male students. Antioch Police Det. Brian Rose and motivational speaker and former NFL player Anthony Trucks spoke about the seriousness of sexual assault awareness, making good choices and respecting all. Thank you for your support of Antioch High School.”

In a comment posted on Facebook early Thursday morning, Melissa Waren, a parent of a female Antioch High student who was one of the victims of the harassment and bullying, wrote:

So in case you didn’t know what standards we hold our Antioch Football JV team to, I’m going to let you guys know. Many of the members, not all, have participated in harassing five of the students. One of them being my daughter and her good childhood friend. They threatened to beat up one of the girls, who I will not name, if she came near them. This is after school hours and this is the only way she walks home. She went and got her other friends to walk her to the gate to feel more comfortable. As they walked her to the gate the guys were constantly insulting and harassing the girl with inappropriate profanities, name calling and more. One of the girls walked up to them and POLITELY asked one of the guys to leave her alone to which he responded with by harassing her about her sexuality. He also told her to “hit me so I can drag your a** and beat the f*** out of you.” He also said to another girl “ I’ll drag your white a**”. And to another “ you look like you would be a b**** to press charges.” Another guy physically pulled his pants down and rubbed his bare bottom on this girl. There were also many other things that were said and done to which I won’t mention. Again, this is not the whole football team’s doing, but MANY of them were there +3 randoms. Apparently, they were suspended and their game is cancelled. I’m sorry but I think this needs more attention. And til this very moment some of the girls are still getting messages from people about how wrong it was for them to have gotten suspended and a game taken away. They don’t call it a team for nothing! We should not tolerate this!!! I will not tolerate this and will be paying Antioch High school a visit tomorrow morning.

When reached for comment, Waren said, “I went to the school, today to meet Principal Rocha. I guess I was one of the only parents he hadn’t contacted. He said he had been contacting parents of the students that were involved, yesterday. These students have been suspended. The game has been cancelled. He said that kind of conduct is not acceptable at Antioch High and that the students were being reprimanded. Their parents have come in. They may or may not be able to play their very last game against Pitt.”

“I brought my daughter in and her friend, who the problem had originated with, and Louie thanked them for taking a stand and saying, hey this is what’s going on, that it took some courage and he was proud of them,” she continued. “We spoke for a good hour.”

“They had already had an assembly with the boys and spoke about sexual harassment and the code of conduct, just last week, and this happened,” Waren added. “It was ninth and tenth grades. I think the 11 and 12th grades will have one this week.”

Please check back later for any updates to this story.


9 Comments to “Antioch High JV football game cancelled due to sexual assault, bullying by players”

  1. RJB says:

    Typical Antioch school.

  2. C.S. says:

    RJB – an unfair statement to make online! Such strong negative perception should be addressed directly, in person to Antioch High Principal, District Superintendent, and the District Trustee.

  3. Sherra says:

    I am glad that this move took place to send a message that this behavior will not be rewarded. It’s not just sending a message to the young men who did such harassing acts, but it creates a platform for a conversation for us to educate our kids that this type of thinking and behavior is not civilized.

    My heart breaks for the girls this happened to and thier parents. My hope is that this is used to draw attention of what is acceptable and what isn’t in a civil society. In this “anything goes if it feels good” society, these kids are being sent mixed messages on how to be. Please talk with your children about this. Prepare their mind to reject this behavior. When my daughter gets home today, I will have this conversation with her in hopes that she never thinks it’s ok to accept this behavior from anyone and to go tell the person in charge.

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