Seven teens who were attacked and raped with a broom handle at a football training camp outside Las Vegas, N.M., in 2008 filed a lawsuit Wednesday in state District Court.

The lawsuit — expected for at least the last year and a half — named the Las Vegas Board of Education, the district's current and former superintendents, the athletic director at Robertson High School at the time of the attacks, coaches for the school's football team, the six attackers, their parents and the owners of the camp where the assaults took place.

The complaint, filed in Las Vegas, alleges that while the Robertson football program has been successful — winning state titles in 2005 and 2006 — it "has also tolerated and/or encouraged an ongoing, widespread and pervasive culture of inappropriate sexual behavior involving Robertson administrators, staff, teachers, coaches and students."

It also alleges that coaches were never licensed by the state and that parents were "falsely assured that there would be plenty of adult supervision of the boys" and that a full-time nurse would be provided. Neither was true, the suit says.

The six attackers — all upperclassmen — assaulted six other students at the camp, mainly underclassmen, as part of a hazing ritual that began with trash-talking about girlfriends, according to the lawsuit. The incidents occurred at the Western Life Camp in Gallinas Canyon near Las Vegas between Aug. 11 and Aug. 14, 2008.

Five of the six attackers — Michael Gallegos, Jerek Padilla, Santiago Armijo, Lucas Martinez, Steven Garcia and Marcus Gutierrez — already have pleaded guilty or no contest to charges connected to the case and have been sentenced. Only Gallegos — the alleged ringleader — remains to be sentenced, probably next month.

The District Attorney's Office in Las Vegas also has filed misdemeanor charges of failing to report child abuse against Superintendent Rick Romero; Robertson athletic director Michael Yara; former head coach Ray Woods; and two of his assistant coaches. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Wednesday's lawsuit claims the victims of the assaults are entitled to damages for the injuries they received — which in some cases were confirmed by a sexual-assault nurse — and the psychological damage they caused.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.