‘In-House’ Suspensions Ordered for Wrestlers

THOUSAND OAKS — Seven Westlake High School wrestlers spent Tuesday cleaning trash from the campus, doing homework and studying for finals in solitude--punishment for their involvement in a hazing scandal.

The wrestlers are undergoing “in-house suspension” for five days for their involvement in the hazing incidents--in which at least three students were grabbed, pinned down and prodded in the buttocks with a broomstick dubbed “Pedro.”

The students were at school, but isolated from their classmates Tuesday. Rather than attending regular classes, the group spent the day working on their academics and performing some menial labor.

In addition to the group of seven, four others of the team’s 30 wrestlers are also barred from participating in any sports until Dec. 12, school officials said Tuesday. Seventeen wrestlers were verbally admonished for knowing about the hazing but not telling an adult.

Two students were cleared with a recommendation that they be allowed to finish the current wrestling season at another high school.

“Our investigation didn’t find any disciplinary issues which merited a recommendation for expulsion,” Athletic Director Joseph Pawlick said.

The administrative discipline will likely be the only punishment the students will suffer in connection with the hazing incidents, which took place between Sept. 7 and Dec. 7. Police have said they will not file misdemeanor assault and battery charges against the students unless the victims ask them to.

Taking a “boys will be boys” attitude, one of the victim’s mothers previously told The Times that she was not interested in filing charges.

The wrestling scandal, which has rocked this suburban campus, prompted the cancellation of the wrestling season last month. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and school officials opened investigations into the hazing soon thereafter.

By late Tuesday, police officials had not filed charges. They said they expect to close their investigation by the end of the week.

While few parents criticized the suspensions, many railed against the yearlong athletics ban for the 11 wrestlers, which can be appealed on a student-by-student basis, parents said.

That ban could dramatically impact Westlake High’s overall athletics program. Underclassmen affected by the ban will miss about half of next year’s wrestling season. Other wrestlers barred from sports are active in baseball and football and will miss those seasons as well.

“It’s really unfair for the students who weren’t even involved [in the hazing] to be excluded from any activities for a whole year,” said wrestling Coach Scott Little, who was not present when the hazing incidents took place. “That’s ridiculous.”

But school board trustee Elaine McKearn, who has not been directly involved in the investigation, said the discipline does not seem strong enough.

“I’m surprised they only get five days,” she said. “It sounds like they should have gotten more.”

While he will likely lose a gifted player to the ban, the school’s baseball coach said he preferred to have an ethical team than a winning season.

“This kid has been a wonderful player, a real gentleman for me,” Coach Chuck Berrington said. “But if one of my players has done something wrong, and [the administrators] keep him out of sports for a year, I can’t argue.”

Members of the school’s Parent-Teacher-Student Assn., however, said the punishment seems just.

Students who “do way less, even if they’re in drama” are subject to the same kinds of punishment for similar behavior, said Ethel Larisey, president of the group.

In the event of wrongdoing, suspending students or prohibiting them from after-school activities is standard, according to a Conejo Valley Unified School District contract that students sign before joining extracurricular activities. Among other rules, students are forbidden to be unsportsmanlike, use an obscenity, commit verbal abuse or provoke an assault.

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Looking ahead, Larisey said she wants the school’s safety committee to figure out a way to prevent future bullying. Hiring a chaperon to watch over teams in an unsupervised period between the end of the school day and the coach’s arrival might be an option, she said.

“I just want it to be over,” Larisey added. “But I’m not embarrassed about being [associated with] Westlake High. It’s just something that happened.”

Other parent leaders lauded the school for meting out such decisive action--even to those students who just observed the hazing.

“I’m so irritated with parents who fail to see that their darlings ever did anything,” said April Aubrey, chairwoman of the District Advisory Council. “But nobody stopped it. And yes, they’re guilty too. . . . I know it’s hard. Who is going to be the brave enough kid to stop it or rat each other out?

“Adults can’t condone it,” added Aubrey, whose 17-year-old son, Justin, attends Westlake High. “Kids have to hear an adult voice saying, ‘That’s not OK.’ ”

Parents of wrestlers, on the other hand, argue that school officials bumbled the investigation into the hazing and now their sons are paying for it.

“They’re making sure the crime fits the punishment now,” said one angry wrestling parent, whose son was not suspended.

Another parent, whose son was suspended, said oversensitivity played into the administrators’ decisions.

“These boys aren’t bad kids,” he said. “They were just horseplaying. But, in this political climate, they had to be punished.”

Wrestling parent Duane Hollinger, whose son was not suspended, predicted a shake-up in the athletic department because “they’ve botched this thing.” He added that he believes suspension was an appropriate punishment.

For her part, Aubrey of the District Advisory Council said she hopes this incident will grab parents’ attention, so they will be more vigilant about monitoring their children’s activities. She worries that living in a safe city such as Thousand Oaks can give parents a false sense of security.

Even though Aubrey said she doubts the students meant to use the mop stick in a criminal or sexual way, many young people in the Conejo Valley “live in a bubble” and don’t realize their actions can take on more serious significance.

Punishment is deserved in all sorts of initiation rituals, she said.

“Hazing--even if it’s just calling a kid ‘Fatso--’ shouldn’t be allowed,” said Aubrey. “I hate it.”

Folmar is a staff writer, Fernandez is a correspondent.