Chief: Anonymous letter claiming rape sparked Oviedo High School investigation

OVIEDO, Fla. — Oviedo police Chief Dale Coleman on Wednesday said an anonymous letter by an Oviedo High School football player claiming that he was raped in a campus locker room last year by members of the JV football team prompted an investigation.

"In a nutshell, it alleged that the junior varsity football team -- that there was a sexual battery going on in the JV locker room during the changing times," Coleman said.

The player alleged that the behavior had been going on for years.

Coleman said investigators interviewed dozens of members of the junior varsity and varsity football teams, but they did not find evidence that anyone had been raped.

Several players admitted they would partake in what they called a "code red," Coleman said. The term had a different meaning for different players, but to some, it meant whipping a player's clothed rear end with a towel, he said.

"Locker rooms have a tendency to have horseplay and shenanigans, and we found out there was some," Coleman said. "They were forthcoming to us, but they didn't feel like they were victimized or brutalized or harassed. It was just boys being boys."

One of the players felt the horseplay went too far and requested that another player be charged with battery in connection with an Aug. 30 incident described as "locker room shenanigans," Coleman said.

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"He alleges he was held down against his will and boys may or may not have done things to him that he didn't give permission to do so," Coleman said.

Investigators said Monday that they have completed their investigation and they have provided the findings to the state attorney's office.

Coleman said he doesn't believe there is hazing going on at the school. He said members of the varsity football team said they were unaware of the allegations.

Cox Media Group