A Tamaqua Area School District attorney wants to see documents related to allegations of hazing and history of sexual assault in the district’s football program, according to federal court filings last week.

The district asked a judge to compel a response from the plaintiffs - the families of two freshman football players alleging the assaults - as part of the discovery process in the federal lawsuit filed last year.

Last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph F. Saporito Jr. denied the district’s motion to dismiss the lawsuits stemming from the alleged incidents of hazing and sexual assault by members of the football team in the field house on Nov. 4, 2021.

The judge also ordered the district to answer the allegations in the complaint, in which the families claim the district violated their constitutional rights and failed to take the required steps in reporting a sexual assault.

The 45-page suit claimed the football team has a “tradition of sexually assaulting certain freshman players by holding them down on the ground, beating them up and attempting to penetrate their anus with an object.”

The district, in the most recently filings, denied those claims in its answers to the court, stating neither of the players were sexually assaulted in the incident, and again asked for the complaint to be dismissed.

The district also stated in its answers that the players involved in the incident admitted their involvement and were disciplined. Also no criminal charges of sexual assault were field against any student in the incident, the filing said.

An 18-year-old player, Zachary McGlinchey, was charged with simple assault and harassment, and admitted into the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program. Two juveniles faced summary harassment charges.

Three students were expelled.

In a motion to compel discovery response, the district asked for information or documents from the plaintiff’s related to this alleged history of sexual assault in the district’s football program or prior incidents of hazing.

The district also wants to see any documents showing the defendants had any knowledge of prior incidents of hazing, as well as the “custom, practice and/or policy of the district” which violated the families’ rights, the filings said.

The district also seeks documents showing “the alleged cover-up of the incident despite local law enforcement being notified immediately.”

The families have requested a jury trial in the case.