The coach of the boys high school lacrosse team in upstate New York where at least 11 players are accused of hazing younger members said he is heartbroken for the community, while denying that the team’s staff knew anything about the alleged incident before it happened.
“To the victims, their families, and everyone in the Westhill community — my heart is broken for you,” Aaron Cahill, the coach at Westhill High School in Syracuse, posted Wednesday on LinkedIn. “The pain and hurt this has caused is very real, and no one should ever have to endure this.”
Local investigators say older members of the team took younger players to a remote wooded area, where other students in dark clothing emerged brandishing what appeared to be at least one handgun and one knife as part of either a hazing episode or a prank.
Cahill said such behavior is “in no way condoned.” As a first-year head coach, he wrote, his priority has been “to hold our student-athletes to the highest standard — on and off the field,” and create a program “built on inclusion, kindness, and accountability.”
“Let me be clear: our coaching staff and I have cooperated fully with the ongoing investigation,” Cahill wrote. “We have been confirmed to have had absolutely no prior knowledge of this incident.”
As a result of the investigation, Westhill Central School District Superintendent Steve Dunham announced Tuesday that the remainder of Westhill’s boys lacrosse season, which began a month ago, would be canceled.
Cahill’s post came as the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office said that 11 students had turned themselves in to the sheriff’s office and received appearance tickets.
A day earlier, District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick had given the students an ultimatum: surrender to authorities within 48 hours or face felony kidnapping charges. By doing so before the deadline, the students received tickets for unlawful imprisonment, which is a misdemeanor.
Fitzpatrick has not named any of the students, who he said are a mix of minors and 18-year-olds, and told reporters Tuesday that more players may also be involved.
Investigators said that at least five younger players were targeted by the hazing. Fitzpatrick described the April 24 incident as “hazing on steroids.”
The district attorney said one victim reported that he went to a lacrosse game and then a McDonald’s with upperclassmen.
Afterward, the student said, they took him to a wooded area after the driver of the vehicle pretended to be lost, according to Fitzpatrick.
“At some point by prearrangement, people came out of the woods all dressed in black. They were armed with what appeared to be at least one handgun and at least one knife,” Fitzpatrick said at Tuesday’s news conference. “The individual had a pillowcase placed over his head. He was tied up and placed in the trunk of a car.”
Fitzpatrick added that he saw video evidence and that the student thought he was being abandoned.
“You can hear some individuals found it amusing,” he said.
The student was eventually brought home, but what happened was extreme, Fitzpatrick said, and “not a rite of passage.” He added that the emotional trauma is “going to be long term.”
“If you want to welcome someone onto your team and toughen them up, maybe an extra hour of practice might be appropriate, as opposed to taking someone at gunpoint, stuffing them in the back of the car and traumatizing them for the rest of their life,” Fitzpatrick said.
Dunham, in his letter to parents, said the school learned last Friday of a “potential off-campus incident,” prompting school officials to involve law enforcement. He declined to share details about student discipline, telling parents they were “not entitled to know.”
“Any behavior that negatively affects any of these aspects for other students will be addressed promptly and appropriately according to our Code of Conduct,” according to the letter obtained by Syracuse.com. “We do not shy away from difficult situations when they arise, nor do we avoid having to make difficult decisions.”
Westhill High School’s student-parent handbook says hazing can result in various punishments depending on severity and number of offenses, from a warning to suspension.
“Hazing of students does not need to rise to the level of criminal activity for such conduct to be in violation of District rules and subject to appropriate disciplin sanctions,” the handbook says. “Any hazing activity, whether by an individual or a group, shall be presumed a forced activity and in violation of Board policy, regardless of the real or purported ‘willingness’ of the student to participate.”
