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Sheriff Wayne Ivey released the following statement.

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BREVARD COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE INVESTIGATES HAZING INCIDENT AT VIERA HIGH SCHOOL

As many of our citizens became aware this past weekend, through social media and other mediums, there was an incident that occurred last week at Viera High School involving numerous members of the Viera High Football Team. The majority of the incident was video recorded by one of the team members and was later posted to social media causing significant concern throughout our community at various levels.

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As such, I wanted to provide everyone with an update on the incident and the actions the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office are taking to fully investigate this incident in partnership, with Brevard Public Schools and the administration at Viera High School.

The incident was initially reported to our agency as a “Hazing Incident” that involved several members of the football team who were engaged in hazing an underclassman and fellow football player. While the incident was reported to possibly have occurred on the 14th, the school administration did not learn of the incident until late in the evening on Wednesday the 16th. As such, the following morning, Thursday the 17th, the administration took immediate action to ensure the safety of the students who were targeted, address those responsible for the incident, and review any failure of staff or policy, that could have prevented the incident from happening.

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After doing a brief assessment of the facts of the incident, and determining that the actions of the students exceeded school policy, the administration immediately contacted their assigned School Resource Deputy, as well as District School Security, to report the incident to law enforcement.

Currently our agency is conducting a complete and thorough criminal investigation into the incident by interviewing all parties involved and collecting evidence and statements from those with immediate knowledge of what occurred!! Once all of the facts have been collected and the case is finalized, it will be forwarded to the Brevard County State Attorney’s Office for review and a filing decision regarding any criminal actions that occurred!!

While there are without question varied opinions on the incident and how it should be addressed, that decision is best made once all of the facts are known and the incident can be reviewed by our State Attorney for further action!!

Sheriff Wayne Ivey

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