Garfield parents to decide penalty
The parents of three Garfield High School football players charged with robbery will decide whether the teens should keep playing, school officials said Tuesday.
“The parents can decide they’re done for the season,” said Garfield Principal Ted Howard. “According to legal counsel nothing will happen to them disciplinarily at school.”
Howard said none of the four students charged in connection with two assaults Sept. 10 and 12 will be suspended or expelled because the crimes don’t have anything to do with school.
Seattle School District spokesman David Tucker said students who are charged with a crime but not convicted can continue in school and school-related activities as long as the court agrees. He said this only holds true if the incident neither happened on school grounds nor is related to school.
“They have been charged, they haven’t been found guilty,” Tucker said.
On Tuesday, King County prosecutors charged two players and another student with second-degree robbery. One of the teens, a 17-year-old player, was also charged with attempted second-degree robbery.
The teens aren’t being named because they have been charged in juvenile court.
Senior Jamaal Thomas, 18, was charged as an adult in King County Superior Court last week with second-degree robbery and rendering criminal assistance.
On Sept. 10, Thomas drove four other players to the 1100 block of Delmar Avenue East, according to court charging documents. Three teens got out of the car and surrounded two brothers, ages 25 and 23, who were walking home after going swimming, court charging papers said. One victim was punched in the face before the group left. Nothing was stolen.
On Sept. 12, Thomas drove three players and another student to the 2200 block of 11th Avenue East, according to court papers. Three teens got out and approached Kayvaan Ghassemieh and demanded his belongings.
Ghassemieh was riding his bike home from work around 6:30 p.m. when he was robbed and assaulted, according to court charging papers. Ghassemieh’s messenger bag, including an iPod, laptop and wallet, were stolen. Police said the teens used the cash they stole to buy dinner at McDonald’s.
Ghassemieh said he hopes the teens are held accountable.
“It’s definitely disappointing they’re out there doing that,” said Ghassemieh, 32. “These are kids who are in school and on the surface appear to have their stuff together.”
Last month Seattle police arrested six Garfield students, including five football players, in connection with the incidents. Because of insufficient evidence only four students will be charged, according to a spokesman for the King County prosecutor’s office.
The five players arrested were suspended by coach Anthony Allen and principal Howard for games against Franklin and Bothell. Four of the players are starters.
The players returned to the field Sept 28 for the game against Eastlake High School.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has no policy regarding athletes who have been arrested, charged or convicted, leaving those decisions to school officials.
Howard said he will sit down with parents for all three players and ask whether the teens should be pulled from the team as discipline.
Allen said Tuesday that he didn’t know charges had been filed.
About two weeks after the attacks Allen said he was confident that the players felt bad about what happened.
“The biggest thing with me was just watching the kids and seeing how remorseful they really were,” Allen said last month. “You can see it in their eyes they were crushed. They should have been, for what they’ve done.”
Seattle Times staff reporter Tom Wyrwich contributed to this report.
Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com