Tamaqua police filed charges against a Tamaqua Area High School football player allegedly involved in a hazing incident in November.

Zachary McGlinchey, 18, of Tamaqua, faces two misdemeanor counts of simple assault and three summary counts of harassment. The charges were filed March 27 in Tamaqua district court.

In his criminal complaint, Sgt. Thomas Rodgers said he spoke to a juvenile victim and his father at the Tamaqua School District building on Nov. 4. The juvenile told Rodgers that he was assaulted by several football team members at the team’s field house at 329 Orwigsburg St., Tamaqua.

The victim said he was struck in the face with a closed fist by McGlinchey and that McGlinchey “forcefully pushed a banana against his clothed anus.”

McGlinchey’s preliminary hearing is set for 1 p.m. May 3 before Magisterial District Judge Stephen Bayer.

Three Tamaqua students were expelled following the incident.

McGlinchey was crowned the school’s Homecoming King on Oct. 15, a few weeks before the alleged incident.

On Monday, the fathers of two football players filed a lawsuit against the district and its officials in U.S. District Court, Scranton. In the suit, they describe sexual assaults of their sons by teammates, and subsequent cover-ups, bullying and freeze-outs.

The fathers allege that their sons were assaulted in the football house, a property where players store equipment and change for practices and games.

In the suit, the fathers allege that district officials and employees, including coaches, knew that while unsupervised, the players “behaved in a manner which resulted in their causing physical harm to each other.”

Furthermore, the suit alleges that the team has a “tradition” of sexually assaulting “certain freshman players by holding them down on the ground, beating them up,” and attempting penetration with an object.

The suit alleges that the district failed to protect their sons and took no action after the alleged assault.