BC swimmers and divers drop their lawsuit after decide declines to reinstate group amid alleged hazing

Members of the Boston Faculty swimming and diving group have dropped their lawsuit towards college officers after a decide on Thursday denied their bid to carry the group’s indefinite suspension amid an investigation into allegations of hazing. 

Middlesex Superior Court docket Decide Diane Freniere dominated towards the 37 swimmers and divers, rejecting their request for a preliminary injunction that will have allowed them to return to competitors whereas BC continues its inside investigation. 

She wrote in her ruling that the group’s suspension wasn’t arbitrary or capricious, and was, actually, throughout the athletic director’s discretion after “adequate investigation revealed credible allegations of hazing by members of the group at an annual ‘Frosh’ occasion.”

BC supplied additional perception into these allegations in paperwork filed in court docket earlier this week, alleging that underage ingesting occured at three group events held over Labor Day weekend. The varsity claimed that group members advised freshmen to binge drink and that some freshmen vomited into baggage they have been instructed to put on round their necks throughout a Sept. 3 occasion. 

An preliminary investigation confirmed that “hazing involving energy dynamics and extreme consumption of alcohol actually had occurred,” BC mentioned in court docket paperwork. The swimming and diving group’s suspension got here a few weeks later. 

Freniere discovered that the 53 upperclassmen on the group have been “clearly and repeatedly warned” that hazing was prohibited by BC’s guidelines, group guidelines, and state legislation. 

“In 2023, no faculty pupil could possibly be unaware of the dire risks of hazing,” the decide wrote. 

In a footnote, she added: “Whereas it’s regrettable that sure members of the group who didn’t take part in or know of the hazing incident are struggling the implications of the group suspension, that actuality is an appropriate collateral consequence.”

Attorneys for the 37 swimmers and divers filed a movement Friday to discontinue the lawsuit. In an announcement, they expressed disappointment with the decide’s resolution and cited the swimmers’ aim to follow and compete whereas the investigation proceeds.

“As a result of that aim has not been achieved, the swimmers have determined to dismiss the lawsuit,” based on the assertion from Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP. “We proceed to hope that the college will contemplate lifting the suspension and assuaging the psychological well being pressure it continues to have on all the group.”

Boston.com has reached out to Boston Faculty for remark.