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Teen's mom works against hazing
By STEVEN WARD
River parishes bureau
The Advocate
Friday, January 9, 2004
ST. AMANT -- Karen Savoy wants to protect children and their families from the type of ordeal she says she, her son and her family have been going through for more than a year.
Savoy says in October 2002, her son, Jake, a St. Amant High School sophomore and football player, was assaulted during a hazing incident by fellow classmates and football players in the school locker room.
Since that time, the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office has charged three students and head football coach David Swacker with criminal violations in connection with the hazing.
Also, the Savoy family filed a lawsuit in state court four months ago seeking damages in the hazing case. The lawsuit named Swacker and the Ascension Parish school system as defendants.
Savoy said while an overwhelming majority of the public -- inside and outside of Ascension Parish -- has been supportive of the Savoys, a large portion of St. Amant residents attached to the school and the athletic program have ridiculed and verbally abused the family.
Savoy said she decided, for her son's sake, her family's healing and the future protection of students, to form a national organization to promote anti-hazing awareness: Mothers Against School Hazing.
"Jake is not the reason I formed MASH, but what happened to Jake gave me the idea to start it. If I can take just one family and make it so what happened to us won't happen to them, it will all be worth it," Savoy said Thursday in her St. Amant living room.
The purpose of MASH is to eliminate hazing, bullying and abusive acts against children.
The goal of the organization is to increase awareness and education about school hazing.
Savoy said people have told her that hazing is a tradition that has gone on at St. Amant High School for years. "We have to change our cultural thinking. Excusing behavior as 'boys will be boys,' is just not acceptable. This is abuse," Savoy said.
According to the October lawsuit filed by Savoy's husband, Jerry Savoy -- an Ascension Parish councilman -- the couple's son, then 16, 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.
The lawsuit also states that coach Swacker knew about other hazing incidents involving members of school athletic teams and treated such outbreaks as "common practices without any recourse or disciplinary proceedings."
Swacker, 49, 40441 Myrtle St., Prairieville, has pleaded innocent in 23rd Judicial District Court to the charge of failure to report abuse and neglect. No trial date has been set.
There was no Ascension Parish School Board anti-hazing policy in place when the incident occurred in 2002.
The board enacted an anti-hazing policy after the hazing involving Jake Savoy was reported in the news media.
The new policy required school principals to expel students who participate in hazing.
Savoy said the school system acted too late and failed her family with its reaction to what occurred.
Twelve of the students reportedly involved in the locker room assault were punished with suspensions that lasted from three to six days. The rest involved were given Saturday detentions.
However, the 23rd Judicial District Attorney's Office charged three students with criminal violations in the case -- Dallas Paul Rowell, Stephen Eric Sheets and Derrick Lee Watts.
Watts pleaded innocent to one count of simple battery, Rowell pleaded guilty to the same charge and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine plus court costs. Sheets is awaiting arraignment and no trial date has yet been set for Watts.
Savoy said Thursday that everything changed for her family after Jake was abused at his school.
Before, he was an outgoing youth who loved to laugh.
Afterward, "He stopped laughing and kept to himself," Savoy said.
"I love my son so much and I don't wish what happened to him on anyone," Savoy said with tears falling down her cheeks.
But Jake Savoy is a strong youth, now 17 and still playing football, and is now doing much better, his mother said.
"Jake has proved to victims that you don't have to run away from this problem," Savoy said.
But the incident has been extremely traumatic to the whole family, she said.
Savoy said she even had to quit her job as a paralegal because she could not concentrate on work anymore.
Some residents of the community of St. Amant have treated the Savoy family like villains -- both before the Savoys filed the lawsuit and, to a greater degree, afterward, Savoy said.
The family has been ridiculed, verbally abused and vilified in print via letters to the editor, Savoy said. Jake has been teased at school, while Jerry and Karen Savoy no longer receive invitations to organizational functions they had attended for years
"It's so hard to understand people not understanding me wanting to fight back for my family and my son. We are the victims here," Savoy said.
When asked why people in the community that she and her husband have been a part of for more than 25 years would treat them so shabbily, Savoy had a blunt answer.
"For some people, when it comes to athletics, they let the athletics overcome their own moral values," Savoy said.
But Savoy said she harbors no anger or hatred for those who rail against her family.
"Some people say that people would have to be in my shoes to understand what's going on here. But I don't wish that on anyone because that would be a wish to inflict abuse on children," Savoy said.
Savoy said that whenever she and her family members walk out of the "small athletic world of St. Amant," they are greeted with encouragement and support from people, including total strangers.
"I get calls from people. People see us in a restaurant and they tell me they are behind us and they are glad we are doing something because somebody has to do something," Savoy said.
Savoy said that she hopes though MASH, she and co-founder Ann Rasmussen can change laws and get states and the federal government to enact laws that require every school in the nation to establish anti-hazing policies.
"Research shows that 1.5 million high-school kids are hazed, and only 40 percent of those are reported, and 20 percent of those lead to criminal charges," Savoy said.
More information about MASH is at http://www.mashinc.org/ on the Internet.
