Two CPS Coaches, Four Students Charged In High School Hazing Incident (VIDEO)

Two Chicago Public Schools football coaches and four of their team members have been charged in the alleged hazing of a 14-year-old boy on Chicago's Northwest Side.

Coaches Tom Cipriani, 47, and Jonathan Manning, 21, allegedly participated with four members of the Prosser Career Academy's varsity football team in beating the young victim with belts at the school on Oct. 18, the Chicago Tribune reports. All of the players and both coaches have been charged with misdemeanor battery, the coaches were charged with endangering the health or life of a child and Manning faces an additional charge for allegedly videotaping the beating.

Both coaches have been barred from the school and will face additional discipline, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Though all the students involved and both coaches were charged in the incident, many Prosser students downplayed its significance. One football player told ABC Chicago, "They always just playing around. There was no harm to him. He didn't get no bruises or nothing." Another said, "Everybody was laughing."

The incident follows on the heels of a similar incident early this month, when two CPS football coaches at Fenger Academy High School were suspended after they allegedly participated in a group of their players' attack on Derion Jones. The attack was so severe that Jones lost a tooth and had his prosthetic eye knocked out of its socket. The attack was reportedly launched over an allegation that Jones had taken a pair of flip-flops from another student.

WATCH a video report on the alleged hazing incident:

Comments

[raw280]

10:04 PM on 10/26/2011

I am amazed how parents drive up in mini-vans sling open the door and send their kid off to adults that know nothing about. Youth and high school sports coaches lack education (i.e., intrinsic motivation, self-concept, resiliency) in areas so important to child and teen development. These sorts of issues occur daily among amateur coaches, yet we believe sport participation is always healthy.

[Num1Christy]

01:41 PM on 10/27/2011

I agree. But it's not just high school coaches, I've seen some pretty nasty youth coaches as well.

[Francisco Bandera]

09:39 PM on 10/26/2011

The school is fairly safe, it's the idiots, that should have never been admitted in the first place because they are below average students, that mess everything up. I graduated in 2009 from this school, so I know what I'm talking about. The football team is a joke, they lack the accomplishments to even try to justify their hazing of the freshman. Even if they had the accomplishments it still wouldn't be a right thing to do. As for the coaches, they don't even teach at the school. They are part-time employees and paid by the hour, they deserve what they get. Hm... So much for improving the school's integrity.

[abelenkpe]

07:17 PM on 10/26/2011

Everybody was laughing...except the victim. Should of been a clue that it wasn't funny.

[pbjelly]

06:26 PM on 10/26/2011

I agree that the high school coaches should be fired! Let's see what the school board will do with these big kids trying to relive their glory days! I bet they were bullies growing up!! Shame on them!

[bahkey]

05:12 PM on 10/26/2011

Fire and jail both coaches,Put Football program on suspension for 2 full seasons. Suspend all four
players/students for violent zero tolerance rule, Which goes on high school transcripts for college.
Make parents and coaches pay for civil suit brought on by victim and protection services.

[danrothesq]

01:46 PM on 10/26/2011

It must be a slow news day. More terror in the public schools? What nonsense. Maybe these "children" will be ruined for life and never be able to work. Right. They will not work anyhow because in America that is the new thing, no work and get a check. If you drive a Hoverround you are one very privileged person. See what they are doing with them in the Occupy Vancouver demonstrations. The region is in social and economic collapse. Love it.

[kingjohn1956]

07:19 AM on 10/27/2011

Not feeling like going to work today.Got any ideals on how i can get a check for doing nothing,

[Lisa Heinrichs]

11:25 AM on 10/26/2011

Have you ever noticed that most HS coaches are bullies? They had their glory years in HS and when they relize that behavior isn't seen as funny in the real world, they do the only thing they know, go back to HS.

[onesleepinluv]

10:22 AM on 10/26/2011

the coaches should be fired and procecuted to the fullest extent of the law and when they finish their sentence then they should work for the department of sanitation because I do not want to support them by them being on welfare or any support from the government...and the students involved should be tried as adults also.....they are at least 17 and if they are 18 then they are adults...and after they finish their sentence make it so they can not get into a decent college also make it difficult for them to get a job at all maybe they can work for the department of sanitation also...thats where these people belong with the trash!!!! Maybe if there were tougher laws on bullying and hazing it would stop....children should be held accoutable by the law for bullying and hazing also

[Joseph Schmoe]

09:48 AM on 10/26/2011

The people who 'coach' our children deserve as much scrutiny as any other adult we allow to come in contact with our children.
If you cannot convince me to be a part of your team and to inspire loyalty save through intimidation, beatings and hazing, then you have nothing to offer anyone in the first place.

[tojohnmiller]

09:30 AM on 10/26/2011

Not suprising. I've had coaches that were salt of the Earth - real mentors for kids who had a hard home life. But I've also known coaches who had a mean streak - even making fun of the special ed kids in the cafeteria. It seems if you become a gym teacher or coach its either because you want to help kids better themselves, or that you never grew up and enjoy bullying kids.

[EDS530]

09:20 AM on 10/26/2011

Perhaps this school should be closed down, it sounds like the monkeys are running the zoo.

[NOV42008]

10:06 AM on 10/26/2011

Did you see the monkeys about 5 years ago in the elite surburbs doing the same thing?

[usmarine32yr]

09:05 AM on 10/26/2011

I'm not surprised this would happen in Chicago , the most violent city on earth .

[kingjohn1956]

07:22 AM on 10/27/2011

I'm not surprised by anything anymore!!!

[roald]

12:35 PM on 10/27/2011

Care to share the source of your knowledge?

[tccat4]

04:54 AM on 10/26/2011

"They always just playing around. There was no harm to him. He didn't get no bruises or nothing."
I guess he was either hit in the helmet more than a few times, Or slept thru English class...... :)

[dhazeltlvt]

02:06 AM on 10/26/2011

Why on earth would you post a video of this incident. Do we really need to watch such things?

[sieiantn]

08:56 AM on 10/26/2011

Yes you do need to at least know about such things! A similar "event" took place in one of our school districts! This kind of criminal activity is going on in high schools and colleges and universities throughout the Country! It MUST stop! I suggest that we write our local legislators to pass laws prohibiting any and all "hazing" activities! If a school/college/univiersity does not take appropriate LEGAL action when such "events" are known to have occurred, they should lose funding, or have to pay a hefty fine! Too often these activities are looked at as "boys being boys"! When "hazing" becomes "criminal" it is no longer "good clean fun" or "boys being boys"!

[tamthebrat1978]

11:54 AM on 10/26/2011

I agree and it is not like they were showing the kids being beat. Same as any news cast for any crime.

[kingjohn1956]

07:26 AM on 10/27/2011

'''Boys being boys''' These coaches should be trying to teach them to become men.

[APBTLover01]

12:46 AM on 10/26/2011

When I was in high school most of the P.E teachers and coaches were as immature as the students. Grade school was even worse.