Hazing, sexual assault allegations end football season at El Cerrito High in Bay Area
El Cerrito High School in the Bay Area has canceled the remainder of its football season following a month-long police investigation into allegations of hazing and sexual assault involving at least 22 athletes over the last three seasons.
The probe stems from “a mandated reporter” on Oct. 2 telling police that members of the football team were engaging in bullying and hazing, the El Cerrito Police Department said in a statement. A mandated reporter in California is someone who has responsibility for children through their employment or volunteer status and is legally required to report suspected child abuse.
The alleged victims were other members of the football team. Detectives interviewed them along with school staff and witnesses. The West Contra Costa Unified School District, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, said the alleged incidents were said to have occurred between September 2024 and October 2026.
The police said they are investigating allegations of battery, sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, dissuading a victim, conspiracy and stalking.
Detectives have obtained video evidence that corroborated the allegations, although police officials said they would not release details because of “the sensitive nature of an ongoing investigation that involves juvenile victims, witnesses and suspects.”
El Cerrito head coach Tim Johnson was placed on leave, and the team’s regular-season finale Friday against El Sobrante De Anza High was canceled. El Cerrito has a 6-3 record but will not participate in the upcoming playoffs to defend their title won last year.
The school district said it is conducting its own investigation under Title IX.
“No child should ever experience what our students have described,” District Supt. Cheryl Cotton said. “While we have worked to focus on accountability for the actions of individual players up until this point, new information has led to new decisions.
“We must now make the very tough call to immediately suspend the El Cerrito High football program in order to prevent any further harm and restore a safe learning environment for our students.”
Cotton said the district is “providing resources for all impacted and involved students” through classroom instruction on anti-hazing and bystander education.
The El Cerrito football program is two years removed from a controversy that allegedly coincided with the beginning of the hazing. Six games were forfeited by the Gauchos in 2024 and their coach at the time, Jacob Rincon, was suspended for breaking rules prohibiting undue influence and athletically motivated transfers. Several players were deemed ineligible, and the program was placed on probation for two years.
Some parents and advocates of the program were outraged by the school’s action, calling on Rincon to be reinstated and then-principal Malcolm Norrington to be fired. More than 100 students engaged in a walkout, waving homemade posters and chanting “Free Coach Jake,” and “No More Norrington,” according to digital news site Richmond Confidential.
Parents gathered more than 2,000 signatures in a petition to fire Norrington, who left the district in 2025. Rincon was dismissed and replaced last season by Johnson, who led the team to a 13-2 record and the school’s first State Division 4-A championship.
According to the police, however, the hazing and sexual assaults continued in 2025 and into 2026.
Similar allegations have marred prominent high school football programs in Southern California in recent years.
A lawsuit in 2024 details a sexual assault against a sophomore football player at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita that triggered a police investigation and left the boy with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and anxiety. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated after the boy went to a hospital emergency room and alleged he had been sexually assaulted.
Santa Margarita principal Cheri Wood admitted in emails obtained by the Orange County Register that “at least 8” other players were allegedly assaulted by their teammates in a similar manner. The lawsuit was dismissed after a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached. The coach at the time was replaced by former NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, and Santa Margarita won a state title in 2025 and currently sits atop The Times’ high school football rankings.
A Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos High football player placed in a chokehold and whipped with a belt by two older players in a locker room in 2023 was initially described by Chaffey Joint Union High School District officials as “horseplay.” However, a video of the victim begging and screaming was circulated widely online and the district reversed its position, reclassified the event as prohibited hazing and issued undisclosed student disciplinary measures.
A 2021 lawsuit shined a light on players at Santa Ana Mater Dei High — one of the most celebrated football programs in the nation — being severely beaten by other players in a brutal hazing ritual called “bodies.” The family of a victim who suffered a traumatic brain injury and a broken nose filed a lawsuit against Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange, alleging the Mater Dei administration covered up the incident.
“You drop your kids off at school and give them a kiss goodbye … and you feel like you’re putting them somewhere they can be safe,” the victim’s mother told The Times. “I felt like Mater Dei had the highest protection, I felt my kid would be safe there. Then for them to turn a blind eye and be so unsupervised. … It’s like, you failed my child.”
