At a meeting on March 26, the Mingus Union High School District Governing Board decided unanimously in a 3-0 vote to suspend senior Tyler Kelly for 180 days. The suspension was in response to an incident of alleged hazing that the baseball star was involved in aboard a bus back from a game on March 6.
Kelly’s suspension forbids him from attending Mingus Union High School for the next six months. It also stops him from attending any other schools in the district, and bans him from all campus buildings and any other school district events taking place off-campus.
For a high school senior in his last semester at the school, this suspension is especially damaging. According to MUHSD Superintendent Penny Hargrove, Kelly has only two credits left to complete before graduation. Kelly has also already accepted a full-ride scholarship to play baseball at the University of New Mexico starting in the fall, which could be jeopardized if he fails to graduate on time.
Hargrove said the school was helping Kelly graduate on time by completing his final two credits at another school in the Verde Valley. The school board made its decision after watching a video of the incident, which involved Kelly and another senior player — who was also suspended but requested a non-public hearing — pushing various younger teammates to the floor of the bus and engaging in inappropriate sexual touching.
“There is repeated behavior, by my investigation, of hazing, repeated behavior of assault,” Mingus assistant principal Allen Mitchell testified during the hearing. “Any one of those, in and of itself, as an assault, would be recommendation for a long term suspension or expulsion.”
“I’ll honestly tell you that that video is absolutely horrifying,” Governing Board member Lori Drake said during the sentencing portion of Kelly’s hearing. “Very horrifying.”
Two board members were missing from the meeting: James Ledbetter was out of town on March 26, and Cottonwood Police Chief Steve Gesell recused himself from the hearing due to the police department’s involvement in investigating the incident.
The three board members in attendance said they reacted with horror to the footage and initially recommended an even harsher sentence. Eventually all agreed to suspension rather than expulsion, which would allow Kelly to still finish high school on time and hopefully continue his baseball career.
“I wrote it down here — expulsion,” school board member Anthony Lozano said at the hearing. “But then there’s no opportunity for graduation, and that concerns me.” Lozano said he wanted to find a way to punish Kelly without halting his high school career, “so the dreams and goals can still be attained.”
Kelly’s parents defended their son by pointing to his potential and arguing that some irresponsible choices shouldn’t ruin his whole life.
“He’s a great kid. He’s a kid though,” said Peter Kelly, Tyler’s father. “He’s going to make mistakes like every single kid in here. They do, unfortunately. It’s part of life.”
Tyler Kelly’s defense, represented by Phoenix attorney Phillip Visnansky, argued that Kelly’s actions were part of team bonding rituals and that, as a reflection of team culture, his actions were not outliers and didn’t leave anyone with serious damage. The defense called up one of the students who was subject to part of the hazing to testify in Kelly’s defense. The student, who was given permission to testify by his mother, told the school board that he had not felt in danger, had not been threatened and “gave them consent.”
“He is a loyal, kind, giving, respectful and motivated hard worker. Always has been,” Gretle Mingus, Kelly’s mother, told the school board. “And I would just ask that you consider the culture of these other athletes’ statements that they sent in, just being that this is something that has gone on for years and years and there’s never been any warnings or anything of that sort. So I’m just asking that you consider that. This is his future.”
Visnansky also brought up rumors of sexually inappropriate hazing in the past by other Mingus teams that had not been punished, in arguing that Kelly’s behavior had not been aberrant.
Governing Board President Anita Glazar said no evidence for the rumors of previous hazing Visnansky brought up had been given, and that as far as the board was aware, there were no other hazing incidents.
“We’re going to certainly look into it,” Glazar said. “Any time anybody says something like that, especially something inflammatory like that and something that we don’t want, that’s wrong, we are going to look into that. But we can only work with what we know. If kids don’t come forward, or parents, we don’t have the opportunity to make things better, if that’s what it is indeed. I worked there almost 30 years, and over those 30 years, the culture among the athletic teams — and both of my kids were football players and athletes — never, ever did I know of anything.”
Hargrove said no hazing incident like this has happened before at Mingus, and defended the board’s decision to be harsh.
“Our job is to keep our students safe,” Hargrove said. “And if we ignore something like that, then we are not doing our job, and not keeping our promise to the community that we’re going to make sure that the kids are safe. So looking at what we had seen and what the victims endured, we felt like we had no choice but to make sure that a clear message was sent that it will not be tolerated, and if those behaviors happen, then the consequences will be followed through.”
The suspension of Kelly and the other student involved in the incident leaves the Mingus Marauders without some of their star players in what had been a good year for the baseball team. In addition to the loss of players, Marauders coach Tim McKeever resigned shortly after the incident, citing time commitments. Hargrove nevertheless remains positive on the team’s prospects after the incident and suspensions.
But even if the suspensions do damage the team’s chances, Hargrove argues they were well worth it.
“Is winning more important than our kids’ safety?” Hargrove said. “Do I have angst that maybe they might not take state because of removing some students? Possibly. However, I’m not going to let our students be abused or assaulted in the name of winning.”
The Cottonwood Journal Extra reached out to Visnansky on behalf of the Kelly family for this article but did not receive a response by press time.
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
