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Mother Blames Hazing For Drownings
Two Victims Died In Nighttime Surf Off Dockweiler State Beach
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Sep 10, 2002 2:30 pm US/Pacific
(AP)-(PLAYA DEL REY )-Two women who drowned during a nighttime beach visit may have been undergoing a sorority hazing, the mother of one victim said Tuesday.
Kenitha Saafir, 24, of Compton and Kristin High, 22, of Los Angeles were pulled to shore in Playa del Rey by police officers but pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
High, a California Sate University, Los Angeles, student and mother of a 2-year-old son, had been undergoing an initiation rite for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, her mother, Pat Fargas, told KCAL-TV.
"She's crying back from her death to say stop this hazing," Fargas said.
Fargas alleged the women had been undergoing initiation rituals for weeks. They'd been pushed into the water blindfolded and with their hands tied, the station said.
"I tried to talk to all of them this weekend and said stop it, and I'm gonna call and report this, and now it's too late," she said.
Police said they could not immediately confirm the account.
Uniformed officers were sent to a Playa del Rey beach at about 11:30 p.m. Monday by reports of women screaming, Officer Eduardo Funes said in a statement.
The officers were met by four people who said that two of their friends "were swept into the ocean and had not come out," Funes said.
The officers removed their leather belts and boots and dove into the ocean in heavy surf, located the women and pulled them out.
Attempts by the officers and paramedics to revive them failed.
The sorority had no information on the incident, Executive Director Betty James said from its Chicago headquarters.
"The sorority expresses its condolences to the families and will cooperate with authorities in their investigation," she said.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has an anti-hazing policy adopted two years ago by the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Inc., which includes representatives of nine historically black fraternities and sororities.
The policy calls for holding people who engage in hazing "personally liable to the victim and to answer to the law and the organization," according to the Alpha Kappa Alpha Web site.
(© 2002 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)