STREETSBORO: Administrators in Streetsboro City Schools have indefinitely suspended the marching band program pending an investigation into allegations of hazing at band camp last weekend.
High school Band Director Gretchen Weaver and Assistant Band Director Shane Ellsworth have been placed on paid leave following parental complaints of “bullying and intimidation-type behavior” over the three-day excursion to Camp Muskingum from July 29 to Aug. 1.
“We actually have enough information to indicate that some of these behaviors did occur,” Superintendent R. Michael Daulbaugh said.
Two days after the band camp ended, Daulbaugh said concerned high school parents sent in letters and phoned district personnel, alleging “that some of the students were hazed, intimidated or bullied as part of maybe rituals to become part of the band.”
Weaver and Ellsworth were in charge of the band camp and were placed on leave per the district’s zero-tolerance policy, Daulbaugh said. He did not say whether they knew of or encouraged any alleged hazing.
“We have very strict board policy against bullying and harassment and intimidation of any sort, so we took it very seriously and launched an investigation,” Daulbaugh said.
He declined to discuss details while the investigation continues but described the alleged behavior as “skits, activities and different rights of passage.”
The teacher suspensions triggered practice cancellations this week and the indefinite suspension of the program. Daulbaugh hopes the marching band will be reinstated before the first football game later this month. District staff is working on a contingency plan to allow students to practice in the meantime.
Daulbaugh said no injuries stemmed from the alleged incidents, which reportedly took place each of the three days. Law enforcement in Streetsboro and Carroll County have not been informed of the school’s investigation, which so far has not uncovered any activity believed to be criminal, the superintendent said.
Practice canceled
Weaver and Ellsworth were suspended Tuesday. That night, with little notice, a band booster meeting was canceled.
The president of the booster club, which hosted car washes this year to offset the cost of attending band camp, could not be reached at his Streetsboro home.
Daulbaugh went public with the allegations and investigation Friday morning. On Thursday, most of the band’s 95 members went forward with a performance at Cedar Point. The high school principal chaperoned that performance, which was led by two student drum majors.
Earlier in the week, a Wednesday band practice was canceled “due to circumstances beyond our control,” the band announced on its Facebook page.
Discipline pending
Daulbaugh wouldn’t comment on potential discipline for students or teachers.
Whether the directors knew about the alleged hazing may impact disciplinary actions they could face, he said. Both have been with the district for more than 10 years and have no bad marks, to Daulbaugh’s knowledge, on their personnel files.
There was no answer Friday at Weaver’s home in Macedonia and no responses to an email and phone message seeking comment.
Daulbaugh said no similar incidents have been reported in the six years he’s been with the district, four as superintendent.
Weaver, the high school marching band director, also teaches introduction to marching band to elementary students. Ellsworth directs the middle school band.
Unbelievable, expected
Reaction from parents and grandparents ranged from surprise to skepticism.
“I’m not saying it’s not true,” said a grandmother of two, the oldest a student of Weaver’s last year and Ellsworth’s this fall, should she teach again.
The woman, who had heard the news but wanted her grandson’s parents to break it to him, didn’t want to be named for fear the public would interpret her comments as condoning or defending the teachers.
“Everybody has nothing but good things to say about them,” she said, describing the band directors as “positive and upbeat and caring … so good working with the kids that it’s just unbelievable.
“My reaction is disbelief,” she said.
Timothy Bell — a Streetsboro resident who adopted, raised and put 10 children through the public school system — shared that disbelief. He moved from Cleveland to Streetsboro for what he viewed as a better, safer education.
“I just wanted to give [my adoptive kids] a greater chance,” he said.
Teachers and students involved, he added, should be treated as innocent until the investigation concludes.
Among the skeptics was Laurie Schaeffer, who brought her grandchildren to the city’s skate park Friday afternoon near the K-12 campus off Kirby Lane.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Schaffer said of the allegations. “But I certainly believe that kids, especially in high school, are capable of it.
“Hazing is immature garbage that these kids do to each other,” said Schaffer, whose oldest child graduated in 2001 and whose nine grandchildren are home-schooled, partly because of the bullying their parents experienced growing up.
Staff writer Jim Mackinnon contributed to this story. Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.