Students Get Second-Degree Burns After Allegedly Crawling on Hot Track as Punishment

Two freshman members of an Indianapolis high school majorette team sustained second-degree burns and blisters on their hands after being forced to do bear crawls on hot asphalt during practice, the students’ parents alleged. 

Travis Peagler, the father of Trinity, 14, one of the injured students at Warren Central High School, told media outlets The Indianapolis Star, NBC affiliate WTHR, ABC affiliate WRTV and Fox affiliate WXIN that he couldn’t believe what happened to his daughter on Sept. 18.

“It just makes me sad that the school wouldn’t hire more caring and responsible adults,” Peagler told the Star. “At the end of the day, when you’re in charge of other people’s children, you’re responsible for those children. You need to take care of those children and have those kids be safe.”

Travis said that he picked up his daughter from school and saw her burned and blistered hands. She told him she was ordered to the bear crawls due to her grades.

“I’m like, ‘How did your hands get like that?’” Travis recalled, per WRTV. “And she said, ‘Well, the coach, uh, had us doing bear crawls.’ ”

The temperature at the time of the alleged incident was nearly 90 degrees. 

“I really just want to know what made you think that that was okay, on the 86-degree, whatever degree weather, day that it was okay to have them doing bear crawls on an asphalt track when it had to be at least over 100 degrees on the track,” Stacey Peagler, the girl’s mother, told WTHR. 

The Peaglers’ daughter was taken to the hospital, and her recovery time is expected to be about six months, per the family, WTHR and WXIN reported. 

“This isn’t discipline. It’s child abuse,” Travis told WXIN. “These are young girls. They’re not training to be a Navy SEAL or Army Ranger.”

He also described the extent of her daughter’s injuries to the Star: “Her hands, she had huge blisters, burns, you know, like you tear off like a piece of rubber on something. Her thumbs, the skin on her thumbs was rolled up.”

Meanwhile, mother Ronnisha Banks told WTHR that her daughter, another member of the majorette team, also experienced the same alleged treatment. She shared photos of the girl’s second-degree burns and blisters with the local outlet 

“She can’t do school work the way she needs to,” Banks said of her daughter.

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In an email to PEOPLE on Friday, Sept. 26, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confirmed that an incident report about the matter was filed and the investigation remains ongoing.

PEOPLE contacted Warren Township Schools for comment.

In a statement shared with the local media outlets, the school district wrote: “We are aware of an incident during last week’s dance team practice involving a conditioning drill on the track that resulted in several students sustaining blisters to their hands from the surface. We are taking this matter very seriously, conducting an active investigation, and remain in close contact with students and families to support their recovery.”

“The safety and well-being of our student-athletes will always be our top priority,” the district’s statement continued, “and we remain committed to listening to our students and families as we learn from this incident.”

Banks also told WTHR that she contacted Indiana Department of Child Services.

In an email to PEOPLE, a DCS spokesperson said, due to a state statute, the department cannot comment on active cases or if an incident has been reported or not.

PEOPLE also reached out to an attorney representing the Peaglers.