Liceu de Lisboa removes seven players from the football team after hazing investigation

In front of the Liceu de Lisboa on Route 196. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Liceu de Lisboa has removed seven players from its football team, the latest move at the small, close-knit school, following the announcement of hazing involving football players last Friday. It is unclear whether the football players were also suspended from school.

Richard Green, superintendent of Lisbon Schools, said the decision to remove players from the football team resulted from the school’s internal investigation into an alleged hazing incident on campus.

Lisbon Police are also investigating another incident that concerns potential criminal behavior resulting from an alleged off-campus hazing incident at a different time. Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee said Thursday morning that he hopes to formally take the case to the district attorney, whose office will determine whether criminal charges will be filed and prosecuted.

The football players’ suspension comes a day after Lisbon announced it would pull out of Friday night’s home football game against Freeport. Lisbon also lost the Oct. 4 game at Mountain Valley High in Rumford. This loss came after the school suspended all football-related activities earlier in the day. Verde highlighted that none of Lisbon’s football coaches have been suspended, but the team remains banned from training or playing in games.

The police investigation began last Wednesday, Oct. 2, after school administrators informed Liceu de Lisboa’s school resource officer about an alleged off-campus incident, McGee said Thursday. McGee declined to release further details, citing an ongoing investigation involving minors. McGee emphasized that the police investigation focuses on a criminal complaint. He said his office is not involved in any school-related decisions regarding students or athletic teams.

McGee added that he was encouraged by the number of students and their parents who came forward to share information. Evidence collection, McGee said, was slowed by the need to obtain search warrants so investigators could examine devices and information “stored in the cloud.”

During Wednesday’s athletic competitions at Liceu de Lisboa, about 20 parents refused to speak about the alleged hazing incidents.

One of the mothers, Jen Theriault, 42, a longtime resident of Lisbon Falls, said her daughter saw a video that allegedly documents at least one act of hazing. “She told me about it the day before everything went public. They had seen everything. The video,” Theriault said. “There are videos of these kids doing this. I didn’t see it personally, but my daughter did.” Based on his daughter’s description of the video, Theriault said the incident could be considered sexual assault.

The Liceu de Lisboa cafeteria is adorned with some Lisbon Greyhounds logos. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

McGee declined to comment on whether his office obtained any video of the alleged off-campus hazing incident. He encouraged anyone with “physical evidence” to report it to police.

Other parents at both the field hockey game and the junior varsity football game declined to speak about the hazing allegations.

Harmful hazing, whether it happens on or off school grounds, is prohibited under Maine state law, which was last updated in 2019. The law requires school boards to clearly establish policies and penalties regarding harmful hazing.

Harmful hazing is defined as “any action or situation, including harassing behavior, that recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health of any school employee or student enrolled at the school or any activity expected of a student as a condition of joining or maintaining membership in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers a student, regardless of the student’s willingness to participate in the activity.”