[hoosier]

Hazing reveals dark side of school
Sunday, August 04, 2002

By CHARLES AUSTIN
Staff Writer


Last week, a shadowy fraternity of Hawthorne teenagers and young adults allegedly conducted an initiation ritual that left three youths badly hurt.

The identities of the alleged assailants remained unknown Friday, but could be revealed by early this week, when police in Ridgewood, where the incident occurred on July 26, say they expect to make arrests.

Police said they are withholding the names of the victims because they are minors. Parents familiar with the incident say the youths - incoming freshmen at Hawthorne High School - were severely paddled on the buttocks. Although police have declined to describe the injuries, they said the victims were hospitalized.

Meanwhile, the fraternity known as Sigma Delta Kappa, whose members allegedly took part in the hazing incident, is so secretive that Hawthorne authorities and average residents alike seemed to know little about it. Police said they had not had any prior difficulties with the group; residents said they knew of the hazing incident, but no one interviewed could provide names of current members of the group.

Part of the mystery may lie in history: The "fraternities" and "sororities" were once integral parts of teenage social life in Hawthorne. Though their influence has faded, there still is a mystique attached to the unofficial fraternities that have drawn Hawthorne High students into their circles for decades.

Former members describe the fraternities and sororities of the 1950s and 1960s as benign social clubs that would meet, conduct a little business, and then adjourn to the soda shop. Secret, ritualistic initiations - often involving being spanked by fraternity members - were an accepted part of teenage social life. Being a fraternity member meant having a group of special friends with similar interests. If there was a little rowdiness, said one parent, people looked the other way.

Today the remaining fraternities, SDK and another shadowy group known as Omega, reveal a dark side that repels many students and causes dismay among former members.

Some in town thought the organizations were dormant. Mayor Fred Crescitelli said he was "just beginning to learn" about the alleged activities of the fraternity.

Donna Shortway, whose family has run Shortway's Barn in Hawthorne, a bar and restaurant, for more than 50 years, agreed that hazing, especially paddling for the boys, was always a part of fraternity and sorority life. She remembers her brothers were eager to join the fraternities, but says she always thought the paddling was ridiculous.

"I cried when I knew they would have to go through it," she said.

Her brother Bill, a 1961 graduate of Hawthorne High School, remembers the fraternities and sororities as primarily social clubs that sometimes raised money for local charities. "And you were always considered a brother," he said. "Kids would look up to adults who had been members of their fraternity and give them special respect." Initiates were expected to have their fraternity book signed by all present and former members, he recalled.

Sororities also existed, said Donna Shortway, but generally without the punishing aspects of hazing. To prove their worthiness to join, girls would have to do things like carry the books of upper classmen or stand in public places and sing silly songs.

With their secrecy and the "hell nights" that were the initiation ceremonies, the fraternities and sororities were another way to express school spirit, or to be attached to a particular clique. Donna Shortway recalled, "I was absolutely thrilled when a sorority asked me to join."

In the 1980s, schools began banning the organizations from school property. An effort to suspend students who were members of the organizations failed on constitutional grounds but the school did ban students from wearing their insignia on school property, citing incidents of vandalism and rowdiness attributed to the fraternities.

The sororities slowly faded away, said Shirley English, another Shortway daughter who attended Hawthorne High and was a sorority member. But when her children passed through the school, the sororities had completely disappeared.

Current high school students say they know the fraternities are around, but they do not seem to be influential. "It's a scene I'd stay away from," said one senior, who did not want to reveal his name. His family has long been in Hawthorne and he said "I've heard that once they [the fraternity members] were a nice bunch of kids."

Another recent graduate, who now sometimes substitutes at Hawthorne High School, said that the fraternities seemed prominent when she entered the school in 1994, but were quickly fading away.

Ryan Defeo, who graduated from Hawthorne High School two years ago, speaks of the fraternities as vague, fringe entities of high school life. "I heard of them," he said, "but I never hung with that crowd." Like others, however, Defeo knew that paddling that had been a part of fraternity initiations.

Bill Shortway said each fraternity, usually designated by Greek letters, had their own signs. Sigma Kappa Delta was represented by a dog, he said, and another fraternity, Kappa Gamma Lambda, had a moose as its symbol. "There was discipline," he said, "if you talked out of turn at a meeting, you had to either pay a dollar or take a hit with the paddle."

Because it is believed that some Hawthorne graduates allegedly took part in the hazing, charges against adults are likely in the latest incident.

One high school senior not involved with a fraternity said, "This was a terrible mistake, and maybe people should learn from it."