THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 1997 TAG: 9702190357
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: FOCUS
SOURCE: BY ADAM NOSSITER, NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: 166 lines
It was a frightening four-month transformation that the young woman said she will never forget: from unease, as one of The Citadel's first female cadets, to fear and dread, never knowing when rough jocularity would take a brutal turn.
Seated in the living room of her parents' home, 18-year-old Jeanie Mentavlos described a slow crescendo of humiliation and physical and mental abuse of herself and another female cadet, Kim Messer, that culminated in a bizarre late-night kicking session in the room of a top-ranking cadet, the company commander. The cadets Mentavlos accuse of wrongdoing are not named because they have not formally been charged with any crimes.
Several weeks later, another upperclassman set fire to the women's clothing using nail polish remover to accelerate the flames.
``It was bad; it was terrible,'' Mentavlos said. ``We would argue every morning about who was going to go first, because both of us were scared just to walk to class.'' Two other women cadets who were enrolled at the time have said they were not harassed.
Hazing scandals have been a recurrent feature of The Citadel's 153-year history. But this one, with its overtones of men taking advantage of the women's isolation, has been different.
Mentavlos spoke in the first interview she has given since she and Messer quit South Carolina's rigid state military college last month. Coming after The Citadel's years-long struggle to keep women out, the accusations of abuse have once again focused a national spotlight on this pocket of fierce resistance, long backed by the state, to the national norm of coeducation.
With a brother at The Citadel, and numerous relatives who were graduates of the institution, Mentavlos was aware of some of the more brutal practices to which knobs - or the shaved-head male freshmen - were subjected. ``I didn't necessarily expect it to be comfortable when I went in there,'' she said.
Mentavlos said she had her first serious run-in with an upperclassman about a month after she entered The Citadel. As she told it, a male cadet, unprovoked, ordered her into a small dorm room, turned off the light, slammed the door shut and shoved stiff cardboard into her chin.
``He grabbed it out of my hand and punched me in my chin with it,'' she said. That cadet was later suspended in connection with an unrelated incident.
Mentavlos continued: ``I was crying but still bracing,'' or standing stiffly at attention. ``He was screaming the whole time, kept ranting and raving about why he came to The Citadel. He said, `Next time, I'll show you what mean is.' ''
The attack left three large welts on her chin, she said.
There was worse to come. Studying and sleeping had become difficult for Mentavlos, made more so by pain from a fractured pelvis sustained in training, for which she was repeatedly sent to an athletic trainer rather than the infirmary, her parents, Nick and Marian, said.
Late one night in October, two upperclassmen entered her room. One lighted a corner of her sweatshirt with a lighter, Mentavlos said. The fire spread. ``I could feel it up my arm,'' she recalled. She broke from the bracing position required in the presence of upperclassmen to put it out. The two just laughed, she said.
The junior cadet ordered the sophomore to light her clothing again. This time, a hole burned through her sweatshirt before the junior stamped the fire out - while she was still wearing the shirt.
Then, at the end of November, came the kicking session.
Mentavlos, Messer and two male freshmen had returned from a night of drinking and were spotted by an upperclassman. Dismissing the men, the upperclassman ordered the two women up to the room of the company commander, who was there, Mentavlos said. The women were forced to stand on tiptoe facing in, inside a kind of doorless closet, in the rigid brace posture for 2 1/2 hours, Mentavlos said. They were kicked while the men cursed them and exhorted them to stretch higher.
``They kept screaming, `Get up, get up,' '' Mentavlos said. ``I couldn't even breathe, I was crying so hard. They were screaming at me, `Quit breathing.' '' She said that after they were released, ``I was still crying when I ran out of there.''
A few weeks later, Mentavlos had another encounter with the sophomore and his lighter. This time, he splashed nail polish remover on her.
``The flames were going past the front of my ears,'' Mentavlos said. ``I just freaked out.''
Mentavlos - the daughter of a retired Secret Service agent, whose living room is full of signed pictures of the presidents he has served, from Nixon to Clinton - emphasized that it was her idea to attend The Citadel, not her parents'. At the time she enrolled, her brother was a senior at the college (he left with her in January) and several relatives had graduated there. She said she felt the need for the discipline of the military school.
But, she said, she and Messer began to realize at the end of the very first week that more than discipline was in store.
One day last summer, several hundred returning upperclassmen, gathered on balconies overlooking a quadrangle where the freshmen were marching, shouting lewd comments about their anatomy. ``We just had to endure it,'' Mentavlos said.
The older cadets soon began bursting into the women's rooms, she said. Every night, usually very late, one would arrive, forcing the women to jump out of bed and stand at attention.
It has been six weeks since Mentavlos left the school, but the affair is far from over.
State and federal criminal investigations continue into the two women's contentions that upperclassmen struck them, set their clothes on fire and sexually harassed them. Twelve cadets face college disciplinary charges. And the second-ranking official at the school was replaced last week by the father of one of two women who remain.
Officials at The Citadel promise that there will be no confusion among the cadets about what their new commandant, Brig. Gen. Emory Mace, expects from them.
The other two female cadets, Petra Lovetinska and Nancy Mace, have said they were not harassed. Several explanations have been offered by the lawyers for Mentavlos and Messer, including the fact that Mace is the daughter of a retired Army general and Lovetinska had her tuition paid by Citadel alumni.
What is certain is that even by the standards of cadet behavior, the treatment of Mentavlos and Messer was perceived by some as extreme.
Mentavlos' parents said that in mid-December, they received an anxious phone call from two seniors in their daughter's company who warned them that she was being mistreated.
Much of what Jeanie Mentavlos related in an interview over the weekend, she told school officials last week in a lengthy statement. A Citadel spokesman, Col. Terry Leedom, said the school would have no comment.
Mentavlos speaks of her experiences without bitterness. Indeed, her parents, sitting with her, seemed considerably more angry.
``While I was in it, I was just trying to endure it,'' she explained. ``Now that I'm out, I don't regret it,'' she said. ``I didn't get what I went there for.'' ILLUSTRATION: Former Citadel cadet Jeanie Mentavlos, above, talks
from her parents' home in Charlotte, N.C., about the alleged
harassment she experienced at the S.C. military college that just
went coed. At right, during the college's homecoming football game
in November, male cadets ogled Mentavlos and Messer, second and
third from left, respectively. The two have since left the Citadel.
THE WOMEN
Jeanie M. Mentavlos
Hometown: Charlotte, N.C.
Family: Her father, Nick Mentavlos, is a retired Secret Service
agent. Her brother, Michael, a senior at the Citadel, also pulled
out of the school in protest.
Education: Attended a special ``international baccalaureate''
program at Myers Park High School, then transferred to South
Mecklenburg where she was in the top 15 percent of her class.
Graduated in 1995. Enrolled with a full scholarship at Queen's
College, an all-women's school in Charlotte.
THE CITADEL
The Citadel was one of the nation's last two all-male state
military colleges.
The Citadel admitted its first female cadet, Shannon Faulkner, in
fall 1995 after a lawsuit challenging the males-only status of a
state-supported school. She withdrew after a week, citing stress.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last June that VMI must open
its doors to women, The Citadel admitted women for the current
academic year.
Jeanie Mentavlos was one of four women who enrolled last fall.
She and another woman quit last month, alleging abuse by fellow
cadets.
State and federal authorities are investigating the two women's
allegations. Twelve cadets face college disciplinary charges. And
the second-ranking official at the school was replaced last week by
the father of one of the two women who remain.
THE STATUS OF WOMEN AT VMI
Virginia Military Institute, now the last remaining all-male
state military college, was ordered to admit women by the U.S.
Supreme Court last June.
After contemplating privatization, the VMI board voted in
September to comply with the court's order.
In August, VMI will admit women for the first time in its
157-year history. As of this month, 33 women have applied and 20
have been accepted.