2 Uintah gridders punished for 'incident'

Two Uintah High School football players weren't on the field for Friday's homecoming game as punishment for their actions toward a teammate during a road trip, the school's principal confirmed.

Details about what happened between the two seniors and a third player are not being released, but Uintah High Principal Julie Wilde said the incident did not constitute hazing.

"It was absolutely not a hazing action," Wilde told the Deseret News.

"These are two boys that were suspended for a disciplinary action, just like we would discipline a kid for truancy or a tardy or any other kind of disruptive behavior on any given school day," Wilde said. "It was a behavior that was just like somebody roughhousing in the commons area between classes; that's how we would deal with that."

The incident took place sometime during the Utes' overnight trip to play Salem Hills High School on Oct. 2. Wilde said the incident report was referred to the Uintah County sheriff's deputy assigned to Uintah High as a school resource officer. The deputy determined the conduct amounted to horseplay, said sheriff's spokesman Cpl. Brian Fletcher.

"He said it was clearly not a hazing-type incident," Fletcher said. "The school felt they needed to do something because it happened on a school-sanctioned trip."

Fletcher noted that one of the suspended players and the third player in the incident are relatives.

The State Board of Education approved its new get-tough bullying and hazing policy the same day the Uintah High incident took place.

"Very ironic," said State Board President Debra Roberts.

The impetus for creating the policy came from alleged hazing incidents involving Brighton High School football players last summer. State education leaders also believed incidents of bullying and hazing had been increasing across Utah, and that warranted action.

The new policy is extremely detailed, listing clear definitions of bullying and hazing, including "physically obstructing a student's freedom to move." The policy also contains a new component pertaining to "any forced or coerced act or activity of a sexual nature or with sexual connotations."

The new state policy does not address situations in which the perpetrator and victim are related. However, Roberts said since the incident was in a school-activity setting, "It doesn't matter if they are related or not."