The Waldo J. Wood Memorial High School, formerly referred to as Oakland City Wood Memorial High School by the IHSAA, now simply as Wood Memorial High School is a public education institution located in

Oakland City, Indiana Oakland City is the second-largest city, but third largest community in Gibson County, Indiana, Gibson County, Indiana, United States, after Princeton, Indiana, Princeton and the town of Fort Branch, Indiana, Fort Branch. It is the site of Oakla ...

, USA, serving the

East Gibson School Corporation The East Gibson School Corporation is the smallest of the three public school governing institutions in Gibson County in both land area and student body with just over 1,000 students. The EGSC is responsible for a district including three town ...

and drawing students from Barton,

Center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

and Columbia Townships in the much more sparsely populated eastern third of Gibson County,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

. As such, Wood Memorial is the smallest high school in county, being roughly half the sizes of either Gibson Southern or Princeton Community.

Athletics

The school is in the

Indiana High School Athletic Association The Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the arbiter of interscholastic competition among public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Indiana. Member schools are classified into four classes based on enrollment, ranging ...

class A with around 400 students in grades 9–12. The school colors are green, white and gold and the mascots are the Trojans and Lady Trojans. Since 2002, the school has been a member of the

Blue Chip Conference The Blue Chip Conference is a high school athletic conference in southwestern Indiana, United States. The conference's members are small A or AA high schools located in Daviess County, IN, Daviess, Dubois County, IN, Dubois, Gibson County, IN, Gib ...

, and more recently, the Southwest Seven Football Conference, although previously it was a member of the Pocket Athletic Conference (Two of its predecessor schools, Oakland City High School and Francisco High School were early members of the conference) along with its county rival Gibson Southern (Two of GS's predecessors were also members). Sports offered at Wood Memorial include:

Boys

*Soccer *Tennis *Basketball *Wrestling *Track *Golf *Baseball No football

Girls

*Soccer *Tennis *Volleyball *Basketball *Swimming *Track *Softball *Cheerleading *Cross Country

2016 Football Hazing Incident

On August 19, 2016, a criminal investigation was opened into students of Wood Memorial High School following allegations of

hazing Hazing (American English), initiation, beasting (British English), bastardisation (Australian English), ragging (South Asian English) or deposition refers to any activity expected of someone in joining or participating in a group that humiliates, ...

spanning multiple years. The exact details of these acts are largely undisclosed, but police confirmed they would happen on school grounds and students would participate by playing '' What’s The Odds?'' – a game similar to

Truth or Dare Truth or dare? is a mostly verbal party game requiring two or more players. Players are given the choice between answering a question truthfully, or performing a "dare". The game is particularly popular among adolescents and children, and is so ...

. In total, 11 students on the football team were suspended, 1 was expelled, 4 were registered as

juvenile delinquents Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...

, and some were temporarily banned from school sporting events. Following the investigation and subsequent cancellation of the football season, head coach Caleb Cherry resigned but stated it had “nothing to do” with the incident. The team came back for the 2017 season under coach Bret Kramer with only one returning player from the previous year, but the team has not returned since. One source close to a student spoke to

WEVV-TV WEVV-TV (channel 44) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Allen Media Group, the station maintains studios on Carpenter and Bond Streets in d ...

, a local news station, and alleged that senior students would target freshmen, at least one of whom was sexually assaulted; It was claimed that they “

sodomized Sodomy (), also called buggery in British English, principally refers to either anal sex (but occasionally also oral sex) between people, or any sexual activity between a human and another animal ( bestiality). It may also mean any non- procreat ...

him with a broomstick ��. This is the only record of such a claim being made.

References

External links