ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997 TAG: 9703280093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: S.D. HARRINGTON THE ROANOKE TIMES
Hazing charges were dropped because the State Code requires that personal injury be involved.
Roanoke College's conduct board recommended probation for 14 students caught by police in an induction ritual near Carvins Cove, a source close to the case said Thursday.
The students would be ordered to do cleanup work at the reservoir in addition to being on probation for the remainder of the school year.
Officials from the private college would not comment on the case, citing privacy laws that prohibit them from releasing personal information about students.
Spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux said recommendations by the conduct board are sent to the dean of students, who makes the final ruling.
Six Roanoke College students and four former students were charged with hazing after police responded to a disturbance call Feb. 25 and found 14 men standing around four blindfolded men who were on their stomachs in a shallow creek. Police also charged some of the men with trespassing and the blindfolded men with being drunk in public.
The students were members of an unofficial off-campus fraternity called Campus Inter-Action. The ritual was a "bonding" experience between the new and senior members, they told police.
Roanoke County's commonwealth's attorney dropped the hazing charges when he found that the State Code's definition of hazing requires that personal injury be involved. Most of the other charges were taken under advisement by Roanoke County General District Judge George Harris.
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