Roanoke Rapids High School head football coach Chris Lyons was suspended indefinitely on Friday after the school district launched an investigation into allegations of bullying and hazing within the football program.
The Roanoke Rapids Graded School District said the investigation began Thursday after emergency crews responded to a report of a football player who suffered a severe hand injury.
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The player, identified by his mother as 15-year-old Adrian Epperson, suffered several broken bones and lost a portion of his finger. Epperson's mother told WRAL News that he is recovering from surgery and directed any further questions to the family's attorney.
According to the school district, police were told the injury may have been caused by an assault or other bullying-related behavior involving one or more people, prompting a criminal investigation.
Roanoke Rapids High School officials launched their own investigation Friday, interviewing more than 20 football players and other individuals. The district said the investigation uncovered incidents of bullying and hazing. The school did not specify how many incidents they learned about, as the district said the incidents weren't reported until Friday.
The district said Lyons has been suspended indefinitely pending the outcome of the investigation. Assistant Coach Dre Terry will serve as acting head coach.
WRAL News called Lyons, who hung up when asked about the suspension and investigation.
The district said Roanoke Rapids High School played Warren County High School as scheduled, adding that the decision was made not to negatively impact the players, cheerleaders, band members and families from both teams who were not involved in any of the incidents.
Superintendent Bennett Jones spoke with WRAL News after the game. He did not go into detail about what was discussed during the investigation; he did say the district was made aware of "more than one" instance of hazing "over a period of time."
"We don't know how long it may have been," Jones said. "We're still in the fact-gathering part."
As to why the district allowed the game to move forward, Jones said he felt the district identified the specific incident and held people responsible for it accountable. Jones said he has spoken with Epperson's family during the investigation, but did not elaborate further on his injuries.
"We were very confident in the fact that we had identified the people responsible for what had maybe happened at some point in time," Jones said.
Jones also provided the following statement:
“First, our thoughts and prayers are with our athlete who was injured yesterday. We will continue to support him and his family as he recovers.
The Roanoke Rapids Graded School District will not tolerate bullying, harassment, hazing, or any other form of violence or intimidation in its schools or programs. We will enforce the laws and policies of our district and will continue to investigate any claims brought to school officials.
If students have concerns or are facing harassing behavior, we encourage them to reach out to a trusted adult in the school for help.
We also have the 'See Something, Say Something' application on our website to report concerns anonymously and parents can always email their concerns to superintendent@rrgsd.org.
As a district, we will examine what additional educational and preventative measures may be necessary to ensure that every coach and student understands our expectations and feels safe reporting concerns.”