SAD 46 school board to consider fate of Dexter football coaches in late January

    DEXTER — SAD 46 officials have doled out all the punishments they intend to regarding a November hazing incident involving the Dexter Regional High School football team. Superintendent Kevin Jordan announced last week that the 12 football players involved in hazing freshmen team members have all served their school suspensions and all team members had completed mandatory community service required to become eligible for winter sports.
    Jordan indicated the district had no further sanctions planned for either the players or coaches. Three football players still face Class D assault charges stemming from a Dexter police department investigation of the incident. The three players are all minors and will have their misdemeanor charges heard in juvenile court in Newport.
    District officials declined to assess any penalties on the coaches who chaperoned the overnight team building exercise. Five coaches began the Nov. 16 exercise inside DRHS, but three were allowed to leave. The exercise seemed to be going fine until five hazing incidents occurred. The first one occurred around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 16. The four others happened after 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 17. Three of the five incidents were recorded on the school’s surveillance video.
    No disciplinary actions was taken against the coaches, but district administrators plan on discussing with Head Coach Kevin Armstrong and Assistant Coach Matthew Hubbell about what they were doing during the hazing incidents. The coaches were involved in coordinating the community service the players  performed at the New Hope Baptist Church and the Wassookeag Snowmobile Club, both in Dexter.    District administrators ordered the entire football team perform one set of community service and the suspended players to complete a separate set of community service. The 12 suspended students completed the remaining hours of their community service during the winter school break.
    While district officials have declared the penalty phase of the hazing is over, it doesn’t mean the incident is a settled matter. All SAD 46 coaches are appointed on a one-year contract.
    The fall coaches are typically appointed in the spring, but district officials plan on deciding the fate football coaches in late January.    “The football coaches  are in the same situation as all of our coaches. They are all on a one-year contract and need to be reappointed each year,” Jordan said. “Because of the situation we probably will have that conversation sooner with the two coaches who remained on the premises earlier than the spring. I don’t want to let it go that long.”
    Jordan and Bell will make a recommendation to school board for all appointments.
    The board will decide whether to reappoint the administrators recommendations at a future meeting. Jordan indicated a decision about reappointing the football coaches was likely to occur in late January.
    SAD 46’s Community Relations Committee held an executive session with the parents of the football team members last month. Jordan has also communicated with the team parents about the incident.
    “I’ve spoken to parents who had a child hit and with those whose child did the hitting. I haven’t had any of them place the blame on the football coaches for what happened,” Jordan said.
    Four students received a 10 day suspension, two for seven days and six were suspended for one day.
    The students were allowed to practice with their winter sports teams, but were barred from participating in winter sports games or meets events for periods ranging from one week to one month.