NORMAN, Okla. — A civil lawsuit has been filed in Garvin County, Oklahoma alleging three former Norman North High School wrestlers, former coaches and Norman Public School officials “fostered an environment of hazing and assault within its wrestling program.”

The civil suit names former wrestlers Tanner Shipman, Chase Smith and Sage Gandenberger and was filed on behalf on one of the alleged victims of an incident that occurred on an NPS bus in January of 2016. The Norman North wrestling team was leaving a meet in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma when two students, aged 16 and 12, were allegedly restrained and sexually assaulted.

Four wrestlers faced criminal charges in Garvin County following the incident; charges against three of them were dismissed. A fourth, Shipman, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor assault and battery charges and, as part of a plea deal, received a six-month deferred sentence set to end Sept. 30.

The civil lawsuit, filed on July 21, claims there was a practice of hazing within the Norman North wrestling program.

“NPS has fostered a known environment of hazing and assault within its wrestling program,” the lawsuit read. “For years NPS wrestlers have engaged in a form of hazing and initiation which wrestlers called ‘donchee.’ The term was known to NPS wrestlers and coaches. The term ‘donchee’ was used to describe a form of hazing whereby NPS wrestlers would restrain another wrestler while others would penetrate the restrained wrestler’s anus with their fingers.”

Lawsuit documents claim a psychologist who evaluated three of the four teen defendants in the criminal cases concluded these young men did not view their actions as an assault but instead an initiation “tradition” within the wrestling program. The lawsuit claims the two wrestlers were “sexually assaulted, hazed and battered.”

Norman Public Schools could not be be reached for comment by the time this story was posted.

Slinkard writes for the Norman, Oklahoma Transcript. Barry Porterfield of the Pauls Valley Democrat contributed to this story.