Football Players Charged With Attempted Rape Of Special-Education Student

Five football players from a Kirkland, Washington, high school were charged in juvenile court Friday for allegedly trying to sodomize a special-education student with a broomstick, The Seattle Times reported.

The five students from Juanita High School faced a second-degree rape charge for the October incident, the paper noted from court documents. All five suspects, four 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old, have been expelled from the school.

The boys are accused of luring the classmate into the shower area of the locker room where they held down the victim and carried out the 30-second attack in front of many students, according to the paper.

Some of the witnesses stopped the assault, NBC affiliate KING 5 said. KOMO News, citing police, wrote that one of the suspects said "this isn't funny anymore" before the alleged attackers stopped.

Seattle's Fox affiliate reported that the victim was the volunteer team manager.

"The possibility that an incident of this nature could occur at Juanita High School has been devastating to this school and our community," the Lake Washington School District wrote in a letter Friday.

The apparent hazing did not seem to be "sexually motivated," prosecutors said, but the nature of the attack dictated a rape charge, several outlets reported.

Two football coaches were put on leave after the players' arrests in October but have returned to their full teaching positions, according to KING 5.

H/T Deadspin