Local mother organizes group to stop hazing practices

By DARLENE DENSTORFF
4The Ascension Citizen
Tuesday, January 13, 2004


If St. Amant resident Karen Savoy has her way, every school in America will implement and enforce anti-hazing policies, anti-hazing information will be distributed to students and kids will learn safe, healthy initiation practices.

Savoy is hoping to accomplish this mission through the creation of a non-profit organization devoted to eliminating hazing.

Savoy's passionate anti-hazing stand has grown out of a 2002 incident that left her entire family searching for ways to prevent another student from experiencing the abuse her son endured at the hands of fellow students in the school lockerroom.

Savoy held a press conference last week to announce the creation of Mothers Against School Hazing (MASH). Savoy and co-founder Ann Rasmussen said the emerging non-profit organization's mission is to "eliminate hazing, bullying and abusive acts toward our children."

Savoy said she decided to start the organization after her research discovered that little information is available for families in the same situation. Savoy said the birth of the group, which will have a board that will meet monthly, is also a part of her family's healing process.

Savoy's interest in hazing began in October 2002 when she discovered that her son Jake, then a sophomore on the St. Amant High School football team, had been hazed on his birthday. Initially, she said, Jake quit the football team, but later decided to return.

After an investigation into the incident, District Attorney Tony Falterman announced that three St. Amant High School students and head football coach David Swacker had been charged. Dallas Paul Rowell pleaded guilty to one count of simple battery and served six months of probation. Derrick Lee Watts pleaded innocent to the same charge and Stephen Eric Sheets is waiting arraignment. No date has been set for Swacker's trial.

The Ascension Parish School Board did adopt an anti-hazing policy which outlines consequences and punishment for those participating in hazing. However, Savoy said the policy came too late for her son.

In addition to the criminal charges, the Savoys filed a civil suit in October 2003 against the Ascension Parish School Board, Swacker and the three teens. Jake is the son of Karen and Jerry Savoy, chairman of the Ascension Parish Council.

Savoy said immediately after the hazing was reported, the family "directed all of our attention on Jake because we thought that was best for Jake." However, after the criminal charges were filed, everything changed, she said.

Over the next few months, Savoy said she saw her child change. Savoy broke into tears as she discussed how her usually happy child started staying to himself. She said it was after a talk with Jake that the family decided to "do something."

"We decided to take a stand after talking to Jake," she said.

She said since filing the civil charges, her family has confronted verbal and public abuse and been accused of "grossly exaggerating" the hazing incident.

"Our school system failed here," she said, adding that it is the responsibility of coaches and other faculty members to implement safe rules for all children.

Jake returned to the football field last season and also participates in track, baseball and soccer.

"My son has proved to victims that you don't have to run," she said. "A change needs to be made."

Savoy is hoping that awareness of what hazing really involves will bring about that change.

"Throughout our country, hazing has become a serious problem," she said. "Hazing at the high school level is particularly troubling. A major part of the problem is the lack of understanding among the general population about hazing. Hazing in high schools is often overlooked and dismissed as mere traditions, because students, parents, teachers and coaches and administrators do not understand the definition of hazing and how it operates in society."

She said hazing is always premeditated and not accidental. Savoy said it is time to change "our cultural things of this being acceptable behavior, or excusing such abuse subjected to a child as 'boys will be boys.'"

The Savoy's civil suit said the younger Savoy 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.

"I do not believe that changing our moral values because of athletics is the answer," she said. "I have made a commitment to work on the insurance of the well-being of everyone's children and grandchildren in our school system."

She said the majority of the people she comes in contact with are supportive. However, she added, a few folks in St. Amant's "athletic world are speaking loudly" against the family.

"In nearly all cases of reported hazing incidents, the victim and family suffer not only the trauma of the incident itself, but become victimized over and over by their own community," she said. "Not only have I discovered this in my research, but also have experienced it first hand. Not only was my family shocked by the brutal attack subjected upon my son, but also tremendously shocked by the reactions of some members of the community.

"My family has been the subject of abuse letters to the editor, verbal abuse at games, along with the display of T-shirts at a game handed out by some faculty members of the school, family members of the school board and some parents of the very boys that participated in the abuse of my son. To all of you that participated in these events I say I do not wish this upon your family. Because for me to wish this upon your family would mean that I would wish this upon another child and that would be heartless, cruel and against everything I believe in. It is my wish that one day you will see that my family is fighting for something that will one day possibly protect and benefit yours."

Savoy said telephone calls of support, some from perfect strangers, have helped during the healing process. She said one woman calls almost every week and she "has no idea who this woman is."

Savoy said that since the incident, her family has "actually been ridiculed by members of this community for being cordial to the opposing side, by as you say, sitting with the very coaches and sharing a meal at the extravaganza, shaking hands with the parents of the abusers and our continued participation in community events."

Savoy said she had to leave her job as a paralegal because the incident affected her concentration. The Savoys also have no longer been invited to community functions they had attended for years.

"I am angered, but I hold no hate," she said. "I cannot change what happened to my son. MASH is not about Jake, but what happened to Jake gave me the idea to start the organization."

She said she learned after talking to folks in the community about what happened to Jake that hazing has been going on in the community for a long time.

"Hazing is an act of power and control over others," she said. "Hazing is abusive, degrading and often life-threatening. Some people believe that hazing teaches respect. Respect must be earned not taught. Victims of hazing rarely report having respect for those who hazed them."

She said her research showed that some 1.5 million high school students are subjected to some type of hazing each year. A 1999 survey conducted by Norm Pollard of Alfred University estimated that 48 percent of high school students reported being subjected to activities that are considered hazing.

Most students do not even realize the dangers of hazing, she said. A New York students died from a hazing incident in which the victim was forced to drink "an unbelievable amount of water in a short period of time," Savoy said. Sports Illustrated's Dec. 22 edition included a special report titled "A Rite Gone Terribly Wrong" about hazing at Long Island's Mepham High School.

Savoy said she is not naive enough to believe that she can put an end to hazing, but hopes to provide information and education so kids will know that alternative forms of initiation exist and that hazing is a serious and dangerous crime.

The MASH board of directors consists of Savoy, president; Rasmussen, vice president; Diane Ayo, secretary; Leigh Davis, treasurer-accountant and board members Johnny Gordon, Maggie Matherne and Orhan McMillan.

Savoy said MASH will meet with state and national leaders to enact legislation to prevent hazing. She said that while she was able to find one Web site dedicated to hazing, no other type of organization exists in the country. She said the board will meet monthly to discuss strategies on how to spread their message.

Savoy's efforts to start MASH will be featured during a Jan. 22 showing of the Oprah Winfrey Show. Karen traveled to Chicago for a taping of a show on hazing in November.

For more information, visit www.mashinc.org.