The front of Lisbon High School on Route 196. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

Lisbon High School is forfeiting its final football game of the season due to the ongoing hazing investigations involving student-athletes on the football team.

Lisbon Schools Superintendent Dr. Richard Green wrote Monday in an email to the Press Herald that it would forfeit Friday’s home game against Oak Hill/St. Dominic, bringing the season to an end.

“As a result of the on-going investigation, the decision has been made to forfeit the game with Oak Hill this week,” Green wrote. 

The Greyhounds will finish the season 2-6.

Lisbon Schools informed parents in an Oct. 7 letter than the district had hired Portland law firm Drummond Woodsum to conduct a full investigation to “generate a final report and recommendations” and “help to determine if this is an isolated incident or part of a known ‘culture.’ ”

Green said investigators have shared whom they’ve interviewed, but “specific details have not been shared with me.” It is uncertain how much longer the internal investigation will take. Green reiterated that at this point no member of the Lisbon coaching staff has been disciplined.

Green said he will “wait until I see the report to determine what actions will need to be taken.”

Chris Kates, Lisbon’s head football coach, did not respond to a phone message asking if he had any comments or a statement regarding Monday’s decision to officially end the season.

Over the past three weeks, Lisbon has waited until at least Wednesday to announce it would forfeit its next game. This week, Green said he did not want to send out false messages of hope to the players and their families by waiting.

“We know the investigation is still ongoing and wanted to get the information out there to try to give the families full notice,” Green said. “Obviously, it would have been their last game. We’re reaching out to the senior (players’) families to see if there’s anything we can do to try to recognize these students because senior night is a big night.”

Lori Ballard, mother to a freshman football player, is frustrated with how the school district has handled the situation since Oct. 4, when the school announced it was suspending all football-related activities and would forfeit its game against Mountain Valley in Rumford. Lisbon also forfeited games against Freeport and Medomak Valley.

Ballard said she has emailed Green and Lisbon Athletic Director Chris Spauling “multiple times,” to ask them to notify families of the forfeits before they notified the public.

She said this did not happen for any of the four cancellations.

“We emailed them multiple times to make sure they notified them with a bit of care because the last couple of times it was a mess,” Ballard said. “So, they ended their season and didn’t say anything to them at all.”

In her email to Green, Ballard said she wrote, “I hope the administration is taking a lot more care in telling those boys this news today than this happened the last few times. This has impacts to their college goals and ability to receive certain awards. This needs to be handled with care for them.”

Ballard added that several players, including her son, were pulled from class to be interviewed about the alleged hazing without prior parental permission or knowledge.

“People think we’re upset about a game; it’s really the significant impacts that numerous kids are facing on their own and they haven’t even been given actual facts,” she said. “They’ve been pitted against each other, accused and in some cases ridiculed in public forums.”

Lisbon previously announced that seven football players had been removed from the team. Green said on Monday the decision to remove the seven players was based on information received when the hazing allegations were first made and the school was working directly with the Lisbon Police Department rather than new information from the Drummond Woodsum report.

Last Wednesday, Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee said that the criminal case, while still officially open, had been forwarded to Neil McLean Jr., the district attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

McLean confirmed his office has received the Lisbon police report on its investigation into hazing allegations involving members of the Lisbon High football team.

“It appears as would be expected that they conducted a lengthy investigation,” McLean wrote in an email to the Press Herald. “Now we will need to do our due diligence in a thorough review of all the information provided before any decision on next steps are determined. I am not able to provide a timeline for that to be completed at this time.”