Four Carmel coaches out of work, anti-hazing policy explained - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Eyewitness News

Carmel - Monday night's school board meeting in Carmel was expected to focus on a new anti-hazing set of policies to take effect next school year.

Instead, there was additional fallout from Monday's arrest of four former basketball players. First, it was announced that four coaches, three of whom were on a team bus back in January when one of the alleged assaults took place, will not be returning next school year.

Head coach Mark Galloway, freshman coach Justin Blanding, assistant Brandon Lafferman and freshman volunteer coach Michael Bennett resigned.

It was also revealed that the four former players, who now face misdemeanor charges in the incidents, will not be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies.

The school administrators and the superintendent then explained how they went about completing the school's investigation of the incidents.

A point that Carmel High School Principal John Williams made was the reluctance of witnesses to describe what they knew.

Williams said, "As we investigated, as we talked to kids, almost every witness was a reluctant witness."

The there was a presentation on changes to be made to the student handbook next school year. A key word was supervision. The new policy includes a lot more of it.

They will rearrange locker rooms to allow for more supervision there. The policy requires an increase in supervision of student athletes and other student groups. It also requires adding staff to the school buildings for increased supervision. The student athletes will also have to sign releases which emphasize the new anti-hazing policy.

There will even be a new catchphrase to drive the point home: "We don't do that here."