High School Lacrosse Team in Bizarre Cigar Controversy

A high school lacrosse team in Massachusetts had to forfeit a state playoff game after a photo emerged of several players who appeared to be smoking cigars while celebrating graduation. But that was only the start of a strange controversy for the Ipswich High School team, reports NBC News. When the photo surfaced, Superintendent Brian Blake suspended six players for violating state rules that bar student athletes from using tobacco, reports WCVB. Then angry parents insisted the cigars were fake, made from tea leaves, and provided a supermarket receipt purporting to prove their case.

But on Friday, Blake and principal Jonathan Mitchell pushed back in a statement after doing some sleuthing. Because the time stamp on the supermarket receipt had been smudged out, Mitchell went to the supermarket himself and had it reprinted. "The receipt indicates that the 'tea' allegedly used in the 'fake' cigars was actually purchased 20 minutes after the families were notified of the potential violation," they wrote, calling the parents' explanation "fundamentally misleading," per the Boston Globe. At one point, police were called when two fathers got into a heated exchange with school administrators.