NAACP Demanding Changes After Danvers High Hockey Hazing Incidents

DANVERS (CBS) - Members of the North Shore branch of the NAACP and New England Anti-Defamation League are demanding changes in the Danvers Police Department because of a hazing scandal involving the high school hockey team that has rocked the community.

The NAACP is calling for the town to remove the former high school hockey coach Sgt. Steve Baldassare from his current police department position as a community liaison, overseeing the school's resource officers, which the town has declined.

"We have worked for four months with the town manager and chief of police to ask them to use their authority. They are not moving on this, and we feel they are giving him way too much autonomy here," said Natalie Bowers, President of the North Shore NAACP.

The group also wants police to make changes to their hiring and training practices. They say the school department quietly investigated the claims of racist and homophobic hazing but took no action.

"Over the past two years we've had multiple incidents in the schools and town of anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia and it definitely has had an effect," said Lisa Silva of the Danvers Ad Hoc Committee.

"It is undeniable that trust in public officials has been eroded in the wake of these incidents and their aftermath," said Robert Trestan of the ADL. "Because we know that it impacts people at the personal level but also at the community level."

Baldassare was also the school resource police officer. He was placed on leave in January of 2021. He was reinstated in February but resigned in back in July. The NAACP says more action is needed.

WBZ reached out to the police department, school department and the town. They did not respond. The Attorney General's Office is now also investigating.