Alleged hazing draws mother's ire
BY JOHN REYNOLDS
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Several young people were ticketed by police during an early Saturday morning gathering where teenage girls covered with flour and chocolate syrup crawled around while hundreds of onlookers whoop ed and hollered.
More than 200 people participated in the alleged hazing incident that involved female athletes from Coronado High School, police reports show.
In the ritual, which oc curred at Jennings Park in Southwest Lubbock, sophomore athletes were forced to crawl on the ground and sing while other students covered the girls with cooking oil, flour, chocolate syrup and eggs, ac cording to police reports.
The incident, which oc curred at about 6 a.m. at the park at Slide Road and 75th Street, prompted several nearby residents to call police to complain about the noise. Revelers blew whistles, car horns and compressed-air horns.
In addition, police found evidence that some participants were drinking beer, re ports said.
The mother of one of the girls who underwent the initiation said her daughter was forced to wallow in a pond as well.
She complained that her daughter smelled of horse manure after coming home.
Alcohol use was widespread at the event, she said.
"Everyone should have been arrested," she said.
Police cited three teenagers for having alcohol and two others for disorderly conduct.
No Coronado High students were cited for alcohol possession, according to reports.
Police originally went to the park about 3:30 a.m. where a large group of people wearing matching pink T-shirts emblazoned with the word "Senior" had gathered, reports said.
Officers told them they were in violation of curfew and ordered them to disperse. Police stayed in the area because the students made it clear they intended to return after curfew ended, reports said.
By 6 a.m., all the streets around the park were packed with cars.
Not every athlete took part in the alleged hazing incident, the mother said.
The varsity volleyball team did not participate. They were out of town for a tournament, she said.
Apparently, the ritual is something of a tradition at Coronado.
Both Principal Jack Booe and LISD Police Chief Tom Nichols said they were aware students perform the ritual annually.
"Let's put it this way," Nichols said. "It's not the first time."
"I've heard they do this each year," Booe said.
Booe stressed that administrators at Coronado do not condone hazing and warn students against it.
Because the incident occurred off school property and not during school hours, school administrators cannot discipline students who participated in the affair.
Police notified Booe of the planned hazing about 4 a.m., but he chose not to go to the scene, he said.
"I didn't go because I don't have the authority" to do anything about the situation, he said.
Police at the scene had the option of charging the participants with hazing, an offense punishable by up to 180 days in jail and/or a fine up to $2,000, Nichols said.
However, officers at the scene chose not to do so, he said.
jreynolds@lubbockonline.com 766-8725
Linear Mode
