Ten high school footballers in Pennsylvania are facing criminal charges after six teenage players were subjected to traumatizing locker-room hazing rituals, prosecutors in Dauphin County said Tuesday. The district attorney’s office began investigating after a video circulated on social media last month showing Middletown High School players holding younger players down on the floor, spreading their legs, and pressing massage guns and other pieces of athletic equipment against their buttocks as the victims screamed. The investigation uncovered other instances of hazing over the last year, including at a player’s home and at a summer training camp. All of the players charged are aged between 16 and 17; the two alleged ringleaders have been charged with attempted sexual assault while the other players were charged with misdemeanors like unlawful restraint, simple assault, and hazing. Their alleged victims ranged in age from 14 to 17, prosecutors said. The scandal forced Middletown to cancel its football season and led its head coach to resign.
