MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) - The parents of a 14-year-old freshman want their high school football coach fired, after their son had his arm broken during an apparent hazing incident.
Grainy cell phone video shows the attack that happened Friday afternoon after the freshman quarterback learned he had been promoted to the Davidson High varsity.
According to Mobile Police, officers responded to the school around 4:30 p.m. Friday for an assault complaint.
Police say Kim said after practice one of the leaders of the team pushed him into the locker room and about 20 other upperclassmen started hitting, kicking and jumping on top of him.
Teammates threw Rodney Kim to the ground, stomped on him and punched him repeatedly.
“He was beaten,” said Kim’s father, Rodney Kim, Sr.
“He was assaulted by several students - between 15 and 20 students!”
Rodney, Jr. is now recovering at home. His parents say he’s in constant pain.
“He’s mentally traumatized,” said the boy’s mother, Mary Kim. “He woke up in the night screaming and we went to him and he said he thought he was being jumped again. So obviously this has affected him not just physically, but mentally as well.”
Kim’s mothers says she’s already heard from another parent who said the same thing happened to her son
“A parent has reached out to me and told me the same exact thing happened to her son, at the same school, under the same coach’s watch,” she said.
Mrs. Kim says that is proof that this wasn’t a one-time incident but a hazing tradition.
The Kims say Coach Fred Riley should be fired.
“Fred Riley has yet to say to say, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Kim, I’m sorry this happened,” the boy’s father said.
Rodney Kim, Sr. said an athletic trainer called him Friday and told him his son had been hurt in a hazing incident, but no-one at the school sought further medical care.
