Hazing or horseplay?

6 Columbus players suspended for alleged hazing
BY OSCAR CORRAL Miami Herald.com

Six varsity baseball players from Christopher Columbus High School have been suspended from the team in the wake of an alleged hazing incident during a trip to South Carolina to compete in several games there.

School administrators say they are trying to get to the bottom of what happened when a bunch of students broke curfew and got rowdy.

”Why they were disciplined is because they broke curfew, there were kids jumping on top of kids, wrestling with kids, shaving cream and that type of stuff,” said Brother Patrick McNamara, the school’s principal.

Minutes earlier, baseball coach Joe Weber denied anything had happened.

”I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Weber told a Herald reporter who asked the coach to explain the incident. Weber abruptly hung up.

Columbus administrators characterized the incident as “pranks.”

Columbus said in a prepared statement Thursday evening: “Weber reported to the school administration that several players had broken curfew and engaged in team pranks during the trip.

“School administrators have investigated the alleged incidents by talking to players involved and many of the parents and coaches who were accompanying the team. In regard to the team pranks, at no time has any inappropriate physical contact been reported by any of the students involved or parents.”

The suspended players were disciplined for ”curfew infringement” and “violation of team and school rules.”

”For me hazing is always upper classmen against under classmen, and it wasn’t like an initiation of team players,” McNamara said. “It was a mix of junior varsity and varsity players. . . They should have been in their rooms. That’s the issue. They should have stayed in their rooms.”