Hoquiam School Superintendent Mike Parker said Tuesday night that the Hoquiam High School football player who was charged with two counts of rape in late September has voluntarily removed himself from the team for the rest of the season.
“He didn’t want to have the charges distract the school, the district, or the team in any way,” Parker said at the school board meeting.
Tyler Smith, 18, was charged on Sept. 26 in Grays Harbor Superior Court for allegedly forcing a young woman to have sex with him after she repeatedly said “no” in July. Smith is charged with a second count of rape for allegedly forcing a different woman to perform oral sex in December of 2012.
After the charges were filed, Smith was released on $10,000 bail and has been allowed to play in the team’s last two games. Parker stressed the fact that Smith is “innocent until proven guilty” in an interview last week with The Vidette, which first covered the story.
According to the superintendent, he met with Smith and Smith’s father Tuesday and the teen’s father told Parker that his son would remove himself from the team for the duration of the season.
Parker spoke briefly with a reporter after the school board meeting and stated that Smith said he made the decision to leave the team in hopes of taking some pressure off the school and his teammates.
Smith is scheduled to go to trial in December.
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