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Civil Rights Group Demands Investigation Into Football Player Dismissal

A civil rights group is calling for an investigation into the abrupt dismissal of a Castleton University football player who was cut from the team without warning. 

Player Hezekiah Williamson was heavily recruited from a Division I school before coming to Castleton's Division III team. He says he really liked playing for the Spartans, and he was shocked when the head football coach called him into his office to break the news. 

The sudden and unexplained action has prompted the Champlain Area NAACP to ask the university for a complete investigation into the incident on Williamson’s behalf.

The group also wants information on an incident that occurred several weeks after the dismissal, when Williamson was allegedly subdued in his dorm room by campus security and charged with misdemeanor assault by Castleton police. His family believes their son was set up, because of the way the events unfolded that night.  

Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli of the Rutland Herald has been following this issue, and she spoke with VPR about the ongoing story.

Read her coverage of the incident here, and read about Williamson's allegations that the school violated his privacy here.   

A graduate of NYU with a Master's Degree in journalism, Mitch has more than 20 years experience in radio news. He got his start as news director at NYU's college station, and moved on to a news director (and part-time DJ position) for commercial radio station WMVY on Martha's Vineyard. But public radio was where Mitch wanted to be and he eventually moved on to Boston where he worked for six years in a number of different capacities at member station WBUR...as a Senior Producer, Editor, and fill-in co-host of the nationally distributed Here and Now. Mitch has been a guest host of the national NPR sports program "Only A Game". He's also worked as an editor and producer for international news coverage with Monitor Radio in Boston.
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