Twelve Lawrence High School football players have been suspended from the team for the rest of the season due to violations of the Fairfield school’s athletic code involving substance abuse.

One other player has been suspended for four weeks, SAD 49 Superintendent Dean Baker said Thursday.

The matter involving the football players came to light Tuesday when school staff learned of possible violations of the student athletic code’s section on substance abuse, Baker said.

The Lawrence football coaching staff, led by head coach Scott Walker, met with the team later that day and asked about the reports.

“The coaches met with the young athletes and asked them about this, and the players showed a lot of integrity and courage by coming forward individually and saying that it was true,” Baker said.

Lawrence athletic director and assistant principal Bill MacManus said the area of the school’s athletic code that applied in this case involved the “possession, use, transfer and consumption” of prohibited substances. Each participating athlete at the school is required to sign the code.

The penalty for violating this area of the athletic code is the season or nine weeks, whichever is longer, MacManus said. Students have the right to appeal a suspension related to the code in writing within five days of being notified of a suspension.

Baker said only football players at the school were found to be involved in this particular incident.

Lawrence, 1-2 after a 13-7 loss to Cony of Augusta last Friday, is scheduled to play at Windham tonight.

“We had a situation where young people made some poor decisions,” Baker said. “Part of living is learning from your mistakes. We hope these people are strong and wiser for having gone through this experience.”