High school football player forced to bear crawl across hot turf suffers 2nd, 3rd degree burns

LANCASTER COUNTY, South Carolina — A high school football player in South Carolina suffered second and third-degree burns on his hands after he and the other football players were forced to bear crawl across an entire football field.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

17-year-old Cade Poyner couldn’t play in a scrimmage because of second and third-degree burns he got after a weightlifting coach forced Cade and other football players to do bear crawls across the High School Football Field as a punishment, our sister station WSOC reported.

“That day if I remember it was between 85 and 90 degrees and if it’s that hot, that turf is gonna be a lot hotter than that,” Cade’s father, Lance Poyner said.

Poyner says his son showed the coach his injuries and asked to see a doctor.

“He said they weren’t gonna see the medical doctor. They would lift weights...work the pain out of their hands,” Poyner said.

His dad said Cade eventually went to a doctor and was diagnosed with second and third-degree burns that were so serious he was forced to sit out of a team scrimmage.

“For him to go home and come in in that condition kind of upset me,” Poyner said.

A spokesperson for the district said the employee is on administrative leave while leaders investigate. They would not comment further.

“If we can’t trust him around our kids he really doesn’t need to be an authority figure for our kids,” Poyner said.

Poyner says about six other players had similar injuries. He and some other parents filed a report with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office.

The spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office said they investigated the issue but decided not to file charges after talking to the solicitor.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Former middle school music teacher pleads guilty to child porn charges
• Area school district to dismiss early some days this week due to heat wave
• Coroner IDs woman killed in crash involving Mercedes in Montgomery County

[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]