A high school football coach in Oklahoma faces a misdemeanor charge amidst claims of harassment and indecent behavior.<\/p>\n
Phillip Koons, the head coach at Ringling High School (Okla.), has been accused of ‘outraging public decency’ in a court filing on Oct. 17, 2023<\/a>. The charge of outraging public decency means that Koons is being charged with\u00a0 having committed an act “which openly outrages public decency…and is injurious to public morals<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Koons is also the high school principal at Ringling.<\/p>\n The allegations made by attorneys and in local reporting create a picture of a football program that was being run on a culture of harassment, hazing and indecency.<\/p>\n According to News 9 in Oklahoma<\/a>, “Koons made everyone do up downs naked in the turf locker room.” This led to injuries to several players on their private parts.<\/p>\n The allegations reported by News 9<\/a> also claim the use of homophobic and racial slurs.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Daily Beast<\/a>, one of the attorneys for a student involved in these claims was very specific about the allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cThese boys were subjected to a cult-like environment where this guy would groom them, break them down to where they were at a point that they wanted to quit playing football, some of them wanting to commit suicide, and then would build them back up within that cult system and create a deal where he was the most important thing in their lives,\u201d Tod Mercer, one of the attorneys involved in the case said in the interview with The Daily Beast. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe would isolate them from their friends, from their family, even from their doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n