Danvers teachers condemn the handling of the alleged abuse by the hockey team

The association represents more than 300 teachers in Danvers schools.

The alleged abuse, first reported by the Boston Globe, also involved most of the team’s players in a harassing group text with deeply offensive racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic words and images.

Danvers authorities drew up two investigation reports and ordered a third of the allegations, but for six months they fought for Globe’s efforts to uncover what happened in the locker room as well as to disclose details of the alleged hate speech in the group text chat.

“It was worrying that the community needed to know about these episodes through news research and not through direct contact with educators in the school system,” the teachers noted. “The lack of communication from school district management on this issue caused this hostile behavior to spread in our schools.”

Efforts to ease tensions in schools could have started earlier, teachers suggested, if the city authorities had not covered up the alleged abuse.

“School secrecy prevented teachers from actively participating in racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and bullying,” the statement said.

Two members of the Danvers School Committee, Robin Doherty and Alice Campbell, have demanded long-term school principal Lisa Dana on immediate leave for her response to the charges. A five-member board has held a meeting behind closed doors on Monday night to discuss the presentation.

Dana has not commented on the initiative in public, and the teachers ’union statement did not address the attempt to get her on leave.

Civil society organizations have also condemned the Danvers Police Department for handling the alleged misconduct. The team’s head coach was prominent Danvers Police Sergeant Stephen Baldassare, who later resigned.

James Lovell, the city’s current police chief, was the captain when he led the investigation. In a heavily edited copy of his report, Lovell said he did not interview seven of the team’s 22 players, and the changes hide whether any of those seven players were team leaders or alleged culprits.

Lovell concluded in his report: “I think there was immature use in the locker room of the Danvers High School hockey team, but it doesn’t seem like anyone was forced to participate.”

The alleged victim, who spoke to Globe, said he was caught by two teammates and repeatedly punched in the face with a plastic sex toy because he refused to shout racist insult in one of the all-white team’s usual costume rituals, the so-called “Hard R Fridays,” “r,” refers to the last letter of the n-word.

He also said the player touched him inappropriately after the team stripped naked and turned off the lights during another locker room ritual known as “Gay Tuesday.”

The player said he did not want to prosecute his teammates, but wanted adults who were involved in the culture and were responsible for protecting student athletes to be held accountable.

“We strongly commend the courage of the hockey player who came up with these accusations,” the teachers said, “and we support all other victims who have hesitated to do the same.”

They also said, “The Danvers Teachers Association believes in promoting a positive and inclusive culture in our schools and remains committed to the work needed to achieve that culture.”

Bob Hohler can be reached at [email protected].