Westview High School (Ore.) football coach Jamal Jones has been placed on administrative leave after an overnight incident at a football camp on Linfield University (McMinnville) campus.
Jones, who has also been identified as a police officer with the Hillsboro Police Department, allegedly woke up players in the early morning hours of the multi-day football camp by slapping and shaking them.
Westview football coach accused of shaking, slapping players awake at camp, now on leave https://t.co/Go5rZnno63
— KGW News (@KGWNews) June 26, 2024
Per the report via KGW.com:
Around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the McMinnville Police Department responded to do a “welfare check” at the campus, which was hosting multiple high school football teams for the camp. The police department did not identify the name of the coach accused, but reported that he is also a police officer with the Hillsboro Police Department, and added that the matter is under investigation to determine if there are any criminal offenses.
Another report added more details to what occurred:
According to one of the players, at approximately 1:30 in the morning, the coach began entering the fieldhouse where the players were staying.
“He started off with four of my teammates,” one Westview high school football player said. “He threw off their blankets and started hitting them, and then he jumped on top of one.”
The Westview student claims that things got progressively worse.
“That’s when he ended up making his biggest mistake. He went up to a kid, he ended up slapping this upcoming freshmen,” the student continued explaining, ” he ended up putting his knee on top of his chest and grabbed a kid that was across from him by the arm and pulled him towards him. After that, I walked away because that’s when I realized something was wrong.”
Beaverton School District confirmed to KGW that Jones has been put on administrative leave, pending an investigation.
The Hillsboro Police Department said it is aware of the allegations against one of its officers, who was “not acting in the capacity of (a) Hillsboro employee,” at the time. The department said the employee is “on leave,” pending the investigation of the incident.
According to the initial details, this is Jones’ first year as the Wildcats’ head coach. He was previously the head coach at Franklin High School in Portland, Ore., and Arcata High School in California.
This is a developing story; USA TODAY HSS will update as more information becomes available.
