Hazing History At Wall High School Under County Prosecutor Investigation

WALL, NJ — Allegations that current and past Wall High School students talked about during last month's board of Education meeting have been shared with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tracy Handerhan announced Tuesday.

"At last months' board of education meeting the focus of much of public comment was related to harassment, intimidation, bullying and hazing," Handerhan said. "I would like to share that following the meeting, some of the discussed items were shared with the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and other claims are being actively followed up on."

During the latest Board of Education meeting on Tuesday the superintendent also said that, because the hazing and sexual assault investigation by the MCPO is ongoing, she couldn't provide any updates on the matter.

On the Nov. 16 meeting, many former and current Wall High School students took the microphone to share personal accounts of bullying and harassment, painting a picture of a culture of harassment dating back decades.

On Tuesday, a Wall High School senior student said that the way school officials have handled such incidents in the past has conditioned aggressors to believe they can get away with bad behavior.

"We have told the students that they will not get caught based on their status. That the school will turn away for the kids that need help," the senior said. "I've seen boys that have harassed me, as well as multiple other girls going back to sixth grade, walk through these halls clean. There have been so many girls that have gone to you and said 'I am being harassed, I need help.' And the school has done nothing. It has taken it to this extreme for the school to even bat an eye at the situation."

She also said that there was a lack of mental health support resources within the school. According to the senior, there was only one meeting dedicated to mental health in all the time she's been at the high school, during her freshman year.

"There was a death in our school. One of us is dead. It is because there are no resources here at Wall. There is no support here for kids who have no support at home," another student said. "It should not take a death of a classmate for my teachers to ask if I'm ok. "

She also addressed the superintendent directly: "You said the mental health of our students is at the utmost importance to us. That has to be a lie."

Many parents brought up the topic of COVID-19, one of them suggesting that school officials should be spending more time addressing mental health issues and less on contact tracing.

"It is so exhausting as a parent to watch it," that parent said.

According to a document included in the agenda for the meeting, seven students were suspended in November for "hazing & conduct unbecoming of a student."

It was not specified whether these suspensions were directly related to the allegations of hazing within the Wall High School football team that rocket the school community at the beginning of November.

Asbury Park Press reported that a source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the suspensions were in fact related to the investigation.

The first student on that list was suspended on Nov. 10, just one day after the hazing probe was first reported in the media. They were suspended for 10 days, according to the document.

Also on the consent agenda for Tuesday was the approval of an interim athletic director, Nicholas Pizzulli, for the remainder of the school year with a pay of $600 per day.

It was reported in November that the Wall High School Athletic Director Tom Ridoux had been put on leave, as well as three other coaches.

A lawyer representing families of Wall football players not involved in the allegations, Deborah L. Gramiccioni, sent a letter to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tracy Handerhan asking that any student suspensions be considered carefully.

"My letter requested that caution and care be taken before summarily meting out suspensions because of the devastating effects that school exclusion have on children, especially for those children that were only guilty by proximity or association," Gramiccioni said.

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