Two 18-year-olds accused of assaulting and hazing younger students on a school bus earlier this year during a trip with their high school baseball team were arrested Thursday, authorities said.
Greg Lester and Lorenz A. Fehrenbacher face third-degree assault and hazing charges, according to documents from the Polk County prosecutor's office. Fehrenbacher faces an additional third-degree battery charge, documents show.
According to an arrest warrant, Lester and Fehrenbacher were sitting in the back of a school bus during a Bauxite High School baseball team trip March 2 when they called four freshmen to the back of the bus. Lester and Fehrenbacher told the younger students they would beat them up if they didn't do as they were told, the document states. One of the freshmen told authorities he was afraid because the older teens had "beaten him up in the past," according to the document.
When one of the younger students went to the back of the bus, Fehrenbacher and Lester "stuck their fingers in there [sic] buttocks and grabbed their testicles" over the boy's clothing, according to the warrant. The freshman said the older boys held him down "while someone counted," the document states.
Fehrenbacher hit one of the freshmen in the chest while the freshman was walking to the back of the bus, which made the freshman fall back and lose his breath, the warrant states.
Lester and Fehrenbacher are no longer students in the Bauxite School District, according to Leann Pinkerton, a spokesman for the district.
Three high school students were expelled earlier this year during an investigation into the hazing allegations. Pinkerton declined to say whether Lester and Fehrenbacher had been expelled, saying that student disciplinary records are protected by privacy law.
Arraignment for Lester and Fehrenbacher is scheduled for Nov. 9.
State Desk on 10/23/2018