Counselors get jail for assaulting boys at camp

? Two teenagers were sentenced Friday to at least a month in jail for poking young boys in the buttocks with broomsticks while working as counselors at a summer camp.

Clifton Bennett, 18, and Kyle Wheeler, 19, were accused of poking the boys over their clothing with broomsticks, a flashlight and a cane as a punishment or just because they were in a bad mood.

Bennett, the son of a powerful state senator, was sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail. Wheeler received 45 days.

Bennett apologized, saying he had compromised the campers’ “ability to live their lives.”

The teens pleaded guilty to assault last month. Prosecutors dropped more serious charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault, sparing them from the possibility of decades in prison.

Although the 18 victims wore underwear or swim trunks during the so-called “broomings,” photos taken by fellow campers showed them grimacing in pain.