Shut the program down.
Not for a game or two. For a year. Maybe more.
In college sports, they used to call it a “death penalty,” but you can call it anything you want. A sports death penalty, an administrative guillotine, a full-season wipeout.
Real repercussions.
There should be no benefit of the doubt given when a teenager uses a belt to heinously whip a kid with special needs while his fellow bullies stand by and watch.
There should be no comeback when a group of football players lock a Jewish freshman in the bathroom and spray Lysol through a grate in the door, possibly to mimic a gas chamber.
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The former happened in Newport, R.I., the latter in Smithfield, R.I. But these incidents could have occurred in Everytown, USA.
Schools should be imposing consequences that are swift, consistent, and unmistakably serious — something we’re glaringly bad at in America. And if the schools won’t do it, state leaders should.
The Rhode Island Department of Education and the Rhode Island Interscholastic League should work with state lawmakers to adopt a true zero-tolerance policy that results in a team’s season automatically being canceled if student athletes are caught behaving like the football players in Rogers High School in Newport, or the ones at Smithfield High School.
The policy should be designed to scare the daylights out of students. And every single one of them should have to acknowledge, even sign, the policy before they’re allowed to play. If you act like a jerk – or worse, a criminal – you and your whole team will be penalized, and everyone at the school will know it’s your fault.
At the college level, the NCAA imposed a sports death penalty on the football team at Southern Methodist University in 1987 for repeatedly paying players under the table over several years. The team’s entire season was canceled, and the president of the university was so angry that he also canceled the 1988 season, too.
In Rhode Island, the players’ actions in both cases were far more heinous. The incidents were separate and different, but the penalties deserve to be the same. Because cruelty shouldn’t be graded on a curve.
In Newport, where the student with special needs was whipped, no one is accused of hazing. It was assault. Police say they believe the student was assaulted on at least two separate occasions, and a nauseating video depicting one of these incidents spread like wildfire on social media. Four teenagers are now facing charges in connection with the incident on the video.
To her credit, Superintendent Colleen Jermain acted swiftly, and canceled the remainder of the football team’s season – including a junior varsity game that was set for Thanksgiving. The Newport School Committee is holding a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss the incident and the actions taken.
Leaders in Smithfield were far less courageous – and less transparent.
Though their actions were not considered assault, several players on Smithfield High School’s football team were initially barred from participating in the rest of the season after an investigation into reported hazing and antisemitic behavior, but they were reinstated after just one week.
Now some of their parents have filed a complaint with the state Education Department, denying the students did anything antisemitic and claiming their privacy rights were violated.
The message: We swear, our kids don’t hate Jews. They just like picking on freshmen!
This is precisely why the state needs to intervene. Punishment needs to be doled out fairly and consistently across all districts, and it certainly shouldn’t be left in the hands of principals and coaches.
There’s just too much of a possibility of the old, “but we might be able to beat Bishop Hendricken this year” mentality, where good players who do bad things get a pass so that the team can notch a win.
A statewide standard removes the temptation to look the other way.
Hazing doesn’t just involve football players. There has been an alarming number of hazing incidents in Rhode Island in the last couple of years.
According to the Education Department, 13 students were suspended from school in the 2023-24 school year for incidents classified as hazing, and that number grew to 19 last school year.
The point: These aren’t once-in-a-blue-moon incidents. They’re trends, and trends demand policy, not PR statements.
Even with the harshest possible punishment policy, there will always be teenagers who make irrational, bad decisions. As WPRO radio’s Matt Allen suggested this week, the idea of punishing an entire team over the actions of a few morons might not sit well with everyone. Where’s the individual responsibility, he wondered.
But the current patchwork approach results in secrecy and inconsistency, without the deterrence. This is a moment in our state that demands a reaction.
And nothing changes locker room behavior faster than the threat of no locker room at all.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.
