LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Three of six Robertson High School students allegedly involved in football-camp hazing and sexual assault have been suspended for the school year, according to the school superintendent.

After considering testimony and evidence for 12 hours Tuesday, a hearing officer suspended the three boys and will continue to hear testimony about the involvement of a fourth boy today. Hearings have yet to be scheduled for the other two students allegedly involved in the case.

No one but the young men involved know for certain what happened that August day.

Six juniors on the Cardinals football team are accused of hazing and possible sexual assault of six freshmen during a training camp, according to the district's superintendent, Rick Romero. "The board policies they are accused of violating are hazing, initiation, sexual harassment and physical assault," Romero said. "Based on the best information I have, I think this was initiation or hazing."

The district has a zero-tolerance policy for verbal and physical assault. Romero said the allegations made by some of the football players point to "a very serious form of bullying."

The New Mexico State Police still are investigating the case, and no criminal charges had been filed by Tuesday afternoon. But the school has pursued its own investigation and disciplinary hearing. Robertson High School Principal Richard Lopez decided there was enough evidence to recommend expelling the six alleged perpetrators for violating school policies.

June Romero, a hearing officer hired by the Cuddy Law Firm to handle the case for the school district — and no relation to Rick Romero — will decide whether the six boys should be expelled. If she does expel them, her decision can be appealed to the Las Vegas school board, the superintendent said.

The hearing, closed to the public, was held at the Las Vegas City Schools district offices in the stately red brick building at 901 Douglas Ave. Beginning shortly after 8 a.m., an occasional somber young man accompanied by grim-faced parents and sometimes an attorney, filed down the second-floor hallway into the school-board meeting room. They didn't speak to reporters sitting in the hallway.

The cases of the six suspects were heard individually. One of the six students had asked to have his hearing postponed because of scheduling conflicts, Romero said. The alleged victims chose not to be at the hearing, he said.

Some students returned later in the day to answer questions or testify. Some stayed only a few minutes. Some were there longer.

Lunch was brought to the hearing officer, attorneys and others gathered for testimony. The hearing continued through the afternoon. By 5:15 p.m., only three of the students' cases had been heard, Romero said.

The case has shaken residents of the small city, most of whom are diehard fans of either the Robertson Cardinals or Las Vegas High School Dons. Overall, the community is dealing with the situation well and trying to understand what really happened, according to a former Las Vegas mayor, a school-board member and the superintendent. The town and the school are no strangers to hard times, said Las Vegas school board member Philip Leger: "This town is tough."

Three-term mayor Henry Sanchez, who left office in March, said rumors and half-truths about what happened have run rampant in the community. "After a while, fact and fiction run together," he said.

He said the charges are serious, and kids can be cruel to each other, but situations like the hazing charges can be blown out of proportion. "The community has embraced all the kids in this situation. You feel for both sides," he said.

They noted hazing is a problem across the state and the country, not just in Las Vegas. But to portray hazing as a tradition at Robertson is wrong, said Leger, a school-board member and alumnus. His two sons were Robertson football players. "They were teased, but they weren't hazed," Leger said.

Romero said no more training camps will be held out of town while he is superintendent. "I know it is about team building, but I think they can achieve the same objective here in town and let the boys go home at night," he said.

He said the hazing situation indicates the school district needs a "complete overhaul" of its board policy handbook and revisions of both the student and athletic handbooks.

Allegations against the six Robertson football players arose during a mid-August training camp at Western Life Camp in Gallinas Canyon, 15 miles northwest of Las Vegas. State police are investigating the players for assault, battery, false imprisonment and molestation or rape, a state police spokesman said Monday. Among the most serious allegations made so far is sodomy with a broom handle of at least one victim, according to state police.

In the wake of the incident, head football coach Ray Woods, his three assistants and athletic director Mike Yara were placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Yara was reinstated Friday after investigators found no wrongdoing on his part, the superintendent said. Woods' role in the hazing incident remains under investigation.

The alleged victims and perpetrators have hired their own attorneys, Romero said.

San Miguel County District Attorney Richard Flores recused himself because of conflicts of interest within his office and forwarded the case to Santa Fe District Attorney Henry Valdez.

Whatever the hearing officer decides, "there are no winners in this," Sanchez said.

Contact Staci Matlock at 470-9843 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.