Cheltenham has canceled the 2026 football season for the high school’s varsity and junior varsity programs, months after the 2025 season ended amid a hazing investigation.
Dr. Brian W. Scriven, the superintendent of the Cheltenham School District in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, announced Tuesday in a letter to the community that the district made a “difficult decision” to cancel the varsity and junior varsity football seasons.
Scriven said the high school will have a ninth-grade football team.
“The completion of critical tasks required to reset the program is directly dependent on the findings from both the internal and external investigations currently underway,” Scriven wrote in a letter on Tuesday. “Until those investigations are concluded and their findings are known, it is not possible to define, develop, or execute the necessary corrective actions. The district cannot build a path forward around unknowns. The scope and nature of what must be addressed will be determined by the evidence, and that process must be allowed to run its course before any meaningful next steps can be taken.”
In a previous letter to the Cheltenham community in January regarding the hazing investigation, Scriven said about 19 students witnessed an assault last September and made no attempts to stop it, while several others participated in it, and others filmed it. He also mentioned an external investigation into the football program found an overall toxic and negative culture.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
