Teen's mom works against hazing
By STEVEN WARD
sward@theadvocate.com
River parishes bureau
ST. AMANT -(LA) - Karen Savoy wants to protect children and their families from the type of ordeal she says she, her son and her family have been going through for more than a year.
Savoy says in October 2002, her son, Jake, a St. Amant High School sophomore and football player, was assaulted during a hazing incident by fellow classmates and football players in the school locker room.
Since that time, the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office has charged three students and head football coach David Swacker with criminal violations in connection with the hazing.
Also, the Savoy family filed a lawsuit in state court four months ago seeking damages in the hazing case. The lawsuit named Swacker and the Ascension Parish school system as defendants.
Savoy said while an overwhelming majority of the public -- inside and outside of Ascension Parish -- has been supportive of the Savoys, a large portion of St. Amant residents attached to the school and the athletic program have ridiculed and verbally abused the family.
Savoy said she decided, for her son's sake, her family's healing and the future protection of students, to form a national organization to promote anti-hazing awareness: Mothers Against School Hazing.
"Jake is not the reason I formed MASH, but what happened to Jake gave me the idea to start it. If I can take just one family and make it so what happened to us won't happen to them, it will all be worth it," Savoy said Thursday in her St. Amant living room.
The purpose of MASH is to eliminate hazing, bullying and abusive acts against children.
The goal of the organization is to increase awareness and education about school hazing.
Savoy said people have told her that hazing is a tradition that has gone on at St. Amant High School for years. "We have to change our cultural thinking. Excusing behavior as 'boys will be boys,' is just not acceptable. This is abuse," Savoy said.
According to the October lawsuit filed by Savoy's husband, Jerry Savoy -- an Ascension Parish councilman -- the couple's son, then 16, was "confronted by a group of fellow football players who stripped him, taped him naked on top of a bench, beat his buttocks with hands, football cleats and other objects, inserted a tubular object into his buttocks and placed private parts into the nose" of the victim.
The lawsuit also states that coach Swacker knew about other hazing incidents involving members of school athletic teams and treated such outbreaks as "common practices without any recourse or disciplinary proceedings."
Swacker, 49, 40441 Myrtle St., Prairieville, has pleaded innocent in 23rd Judicial District Court to the charge of failure to report abuse and neglect. No trial date has been set.
There was no Ascension Parish School Board anti-hazing policy in place when the incident occurred in 2002.
The board enacted an anti-hazing policy after the hazing involving Jake Savoy was reported in the news media.
The new policy required school principals to expel students who participate in hazing.
Savoy said the school system acted too late and failed her family with its reaction to what occurred.
Twelve of the students reportedly involved in the locker room assault were punished with suspensions that lasted from three to six days. The rest involved were given Saturday detentions.
However, the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office charged three students with criminal violations in the case -- Dallas Paul Rowell, Stephen Eric Sheets and Derrick Lee Watts.
Watts pleaded innocent to one count of simple battery, Rowell pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine plus court costs. Sheets is awaiting arraignment and no trial date has yet been set for Watts.
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"Research shows that 1.5 million high-school kids are hazed, and only 40 percent of those are reported, and 20 percent of those lead to criminal charges," Savoy said.
More information about MASH is at
http://www.mashinc.org/ on the Internet.
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