Did Danvers officials try to cover up hockey team hazing scandal? – WCVB Boston

Extensive redactions in public investigative reports into a scandal that rocked the town of Danvers are raising legal and ethical questions about how town officials chose to balance privacy rights with the publics right to know.This comes as Danvers school leaders for the first time acknowledged and praised the one hockey player who told 5 Investigates the disturbing details of racist and homophobic hazing rituals conducted by the boys high school hockey team in the locker room.Despite that praise for the anonymous whistleblower, school officials have given no indication they will uncover blacked-out information in investigative reports about their findings.The hockey player who would later talk to 5 Investigates and the Boston Globe had told town investigators all about it months earlier, but the Danvers community never saw those statements because town officials redacted them in all three public investigative reports.5 Investigates interviewed the hockey player on camera on the condition that we shield his identity.5 Investigates: Do you believe there is a cover-up?Player: I do.5 Investigates: Why?Player: How much black writing is there? That's a cover-up.This hockey player was talking about reports produced by three different town investigations in Danvers involving alleged violent, racist and homophobic hazing rituals inside the boys varsity hockey team locker room.He told 5 Investigates the disturbing details of what he said happened behind closed doors in the teams locker room, including what he said were called, "Hard-R Fridays." He said players who refused to say the N-word with a hard "R" were physically assaulted, sometimes with a red sex toy.I would refuse to say it and get held down by multiple of my friends and beaten, the player said.But if you read copies of reports by the Danvers school department, the Danvers Police Department and an outside consultant paid by the town, you have no idea what took place there.The reason? The town of Danvers redacted almost all the keywords throughout the reports.These are public records. The public owns these records, said Jeff Pyle, a First Amendment lawyer at the Boston law firm of Prince Lobel, who reviewed the reports for 5 Investigates.Pyle said state law permits redactions in public records for certain reasons, including to protect people's privacy, but not, in this case, to shield unpleasant details of the hockey team's rituals from public scrutiny. The law provides that the public has a right to know what's in the record unless there's a very specific and narrow legal exemption, Pyle said. These (records) are very broadly redacted, and that leads me to suspect that they're more redacted than is possible or permissible under the law.In the school department's report, Pyle found redactions he says had no legitimate purpose.There is a conclusion that's redacted that says a culture of normalizing blank and blank language existed among the blank team, he said. Whose privacy are they trying to protect by redacting words like racism or anti-gay from a report like this? Are they trying to protect racism's privacy? Because this is not a privacy redaction. This is a redaction to try and cover up the conclusions of an investigation. Danvers School Superintendent Lisa Dana declined 5 Investigates' request for an interview. Attorneys for the Danvers School Department said they were careful to protect the privacy rights of the students involved. The chair of the Danvers School Committee recently described the town's thinking at a public meeting.Would it have helped them to have details of any of the conduct that we acknowledged publicly was inappropriate? Eric Crane asked. Would that have served (the players) emotional safety in the school if we came out with it publicly?But Pyle said the town took another questionable step in its handling of the investigative reports by leaving visible, not redacting, many statements that said nothing seriously wrong happened in the Danvers boys hockey locker room.It says to me that the municipality is over redacting these reports in order to prevent embarrassment to itself, Pyle said.The Danvers school department said its redactions were approved by the state's supervisor of public records.The Danvers police said the town balanced any right the public has to information in the records with the privacy interests of the individuals involved.

Extensive redactions in public investigative reports into a scandal that rocked the town of Danvers are raising legal and ethical questions about how town officials chose to balance privacy rights with the publics right to know.

This comes as Danvers school leaders for the first time acknowledged and praised the one hockey player who told 5 Investigates the disturbing details of racist and homophobic hazing rituals conducted by the boys high school hockey team in the locker room.

Despite that praise for the anonymous whistleblower, school officials have given no indication they will uncover blacked-out information in investigative reports about their findings.

The hockey player who would later talk to 5 Investigates and the Boston Globe had told town investigators all about it months earlier, but the Danvers community never saw those statements because town officials redacted them in all three public investigative reports.

5 Investigates interviewed the hockey player on camera on the condition that we shield his identity.

5 Investigates: Do you believe there is a cover-up?

Player: I do.

5 Investigates: Why?

Player: How much black writing is there? That's a cover-up.

This hockey player was talking about reports produced by three different town investigations in Danvers involving alleged violent, racist and homophobic hazing rituals inside the boys varsity hockey team locker room.

He told 5 Investigates the disturbing details of what he said happened behind closed doors in the teams locker room, including what he said were called, "Hard-R Fridays." He said players who refused to say the N-word with a hard "R" were physically assaulted, sometimes with a red sex toy.

I would refuse to say it and get held down by multiple of my friends and beaten, the player said.

But if you read copies of reports by the Danvers school department, the Danvers Police Department and an outside consultant paid by the town, you have no idea what took place there.

The reason? The town of Danvers redacted almost all the keywords throughout the reports.

These are public records. The public owns these records, said Jeff Pyle, a First Amendment lawyer at the Boston law firm of Prince Lobel, who reviewed the reports for 5 Investigates.

Pyle said state law permits redactions in public records for certain reasons, including to protect people's privacy, but not, in this case, to shield unpleasant details of the hockey team's rituals from public scrutiny.

The law provides that the public has a right to know what's in the record unless there's a very specific and narrow legal exemption, Pyle said. These (records) are very broadly redacted, and that leads me to suspect that they're more redacted than is possible or permissible under the law.In the school department's report, Pyle found redactions he says had no legitimate purpose.

There is a conclusion that's redacted that says a culture of normalizing blank and blank language existed among the blank team, he said. Whose privacy are they trying to protect by redacting words like racism or anti-gay from a report like this? Are they trying to protect racism's privacy? Because this is not a privacy redaction. This is a redaction to try and cover up the conclusions of an investigation.

Danvers School Superintendent Lisa Dana declined 5 Investigates' request for an interview. Attorneys for the Danvers School Department said they were careful to protect the privacy rights of the students involved. The chair of the Danvers School Committee recently described the town's thinking at a public meeting.

Would it have helped them to have details of any of the conduct that we acknowledged publicly was inappropriate? Eric Crane asked. Would that have served (the players) emotional safety in the school if we came out with it publicly?

But Pyle said the town took another questionable step in its handling of the investigative reports by leaving visible, not redacting, many statements that said nothing seriously wrong happened in the Danvers boys hockey locker room.

It says to me that the municipality is over redacting these reports in order to prevent embarrassment to itself, Pyle said.

WCVB

The Danvers school department said its redactions were approved by the state's supervisor of public records.

The Danvers police said the town balanced any right the public has to information in the records with the privacy interests of the individuals involved.

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Did Danvers officials try to cover up hockey team hazing scandal? - WCVB Boston