High School Coach in Rabat Accused of Sexually Harassing Student Athlete

According to Assabah, the 16-year-old student would have been the victim of sexual harassment and blackmail, in exchange for her participation in international competitions. She filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Appeal of Rabat, which should order the opening of an investigation to shed light on this case.

Mohamed El Massafi, the student’s lawyer, said he has evidence of the harassment, including testimonies from student athletes and chaperones who allegedly saw the coach, in a state of intoxication, knocking on the minor’s room door at night, while she was on a trip to South Korea with her team to participate in an international competition.

The lawyer specifies that after the young girl’s return to Morocco, her mother complained about the coach’s behavior to the school’s sports director. But no disciplinary action would have been taken against the accused, deplores the student’s family, also denouncing the coach’s blackmail, who went so far as to prevent the young girl from participating in a sports competition in France, and suspend her from her classes for a week, with the agreement of the school’s sports director.

Pending the examination of the complaint, the student’s family has decided to interrupt her schooling. For its part, the school administration, which has been informed of the filing of the complaint, is conducting its own investigations to determine the responsibilities and impose administrative sanctions against the persons involved in this case.