A group of California teenage athletes have brought their school into disrepute by allegedly running a "sex" fantasy league, in which the different male student athletes received points for "documented sexual activity" with female students whom they "drafted" as they would in a fantasy football league.
The disturbingly perverse story emerged out of Piedmont (Calif.) High, where both male and female students have reportedly taken part in the fantasy league for the past five years, according to an investigation by school officials. The findings of that investigation have since been reported by the Contra Costa Times and Bay Area TV networks KGO and KTVU, among other sources.
In a letter to school parents about the long-standing fantasy league, Piedmont principal Rich Kitchens said the school plans to move forward from the incident rather than retroactively punish students who took part, perhaps due in part to a lack of hard evidence about precisely which students were involved.
"Participation often involved pressure/manipulation by older students that included alcohol to impair judgment/control and social demands to be popular, feel included and attractive to upperclassmen," Kitchens wrote in his letter regarding the fantasy league. "At this point, because we do not have specifics about participants or victims, our focus is on education and understanding moving forward, not discipline for past activities."
School officials were first tipped off about the sex ring following an annual date rape prevention seminar held with freshmen each October. While full measures for dealing with the ring have yet to be formulated, Kitchens said that he and other officials would meet with each athletic team at the start of each season to speak about the issue in an attempt to ensure that it does not sprout up again.
While the school's focus on future prevention rather than punitive measures is understanding, it has left many parents of students at the school upset that no official penalties will be provided for a disturbing event that has cast a pall on the larger reputation of the school and community.
"Seems to me the 'punishment' for this activity simply reinforces the idea that this behavior is insignificant," Andrea Alpine, whose daughter attends PHS, told Piedmont Patch. "It seems inconceivable that the young men responsible can not be identified."
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