The Spartanburg Herald Journal reported today that the hazing allegations involving the Woodruff High School baseball team include spanking on the team bus. No charges have been placed.
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Author: Hank Nuwer
Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division.
He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com
Hazing investigated at Woodruff High
Baseball teams scrutinized after parental complaints
From staff reports
Published: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, May 11, 2009 at 10:13 p.m.
Spartanburg County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating complaints of hazing that involve Woodruff High School’s varsity and junior varsity baseball teams.
Master Deputy Tony Ivey said the school district contacted the sheriff’s office on Friday after receiving several phone calls from parents about the alleged incident. “We were contacted late Friday afternoon by the school district,” he said. “They wanted our help in looking into allegations made by parents about a possible hazing incident involving the school’s baseball teams. Officers are interviewing players and coaches, and that’s sort of where we are right now.”
Ivey said he expected a comprehensive report sometime today.
From there, investigators will determine whether any types of substantial hazing occurred and whether more serious assault and battery charges are necessary, he said.
City of Woodruff Police Chief Darrel Dawkins said the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office was handling the investigation because the school’s resource officer is a county deputy.
South Carolina law defines hazing as “the wrongful striking, laying open hand upon, threatening with violence, or offering to do bodily harm by a superior student to a subordinate student,” or “other unauthorized treatment of a tyrannical, abusive, shameful, insulting, or humiliating nature.”
Penalties can include the student’s dismissal, expulsion, suspension, or another punishment considered appropriate by school officials.
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Buffalo News: Lambda Phi Epsilon
Moderator: The high number of serious incidents connected to Lambda Phi Epsilon has put this particular group on the radar screen of school administrators and journalists as a potential hazard to prospective members. The serious incidents in the press are mounting with this group. Remember, this is an organization founded only in 1981. Not all Lambda Phi Epsilon chapters are problematic, of course, but way too many chapters have been connected with brutal hazing.
Here is the latest from two Buffalo schools with members charged and pledges hospitalized.
The Buffalo News
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05/12/09 07:08 AM
Six remain free on bail in fraternity hazing
Six local college students who were charged with assault after allegedly taking part in a hazing ritual were allowed to remain free on bail Monday while an investigation continues.
City Judge James A. W. McLeod scheduled further proceedings for Kong M. Siu, 21, of Bayside; Ronald Lin, 21, of Brooklyn; Qiyvan Zhang, 22, of Groton; Brian B. Shim, 22, of Syosett; Andrew Lui, 21, of Brooklyn; and Ho Lee, 22, of Woodbury. All have been charged with felony second-degree assault and misdemeanor hazing.
The six are said to be members of Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity. They are accused of paddling three victims and forcing them to drink alcohol until they lost consciousness April 26 in a Winspear Avenue home.
Edward C. Cosgrove, attorney for all six defendants, confirmed that all six have been suspended from class until the criminal case is resolved. Five of the defendants are from the University at Buffalo. The sixth, Shim, in a junior in D’Youville’s nursing program.
According to court documents, the victims were found unconscious in a locked upstairs bedroom, hospitalized for two days at Erie Medical Center and treated for “dehydration, alcohol poisoning, blood in urine and severe pain, swelling and severe bruising to buttocks.â€
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San Sebastian coach update
Indian River County schools
Counsel rests case in Sebastian River baseball coach’s appeal
By Laurel Pfahler (Contact) INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Counsel for the Indian River County School Board rested its case Thursday morning in an administrative hearing in which former Sebastian River baseball coach George Young is appealing a three-day unpaid suspension from teaching.
Young lost his coaching job and served the suspension almost a year ago as a result of an alleged hazing incident involving members of the Sharks baseball team while staying in a hotel during a spring break tournament in March of 2008.
The 14-year coach was disciplined after Indian River School District investigators concluded three Sebastian River baseball players held down a teammate and placed a plastic 2-liter bottle at or near a player’s rectum.
Before resting, attorney Wayne Helsby, of Allen, Norton & Blue, P.A., in Winter Park, called four more witnesses to the stand Thursday morning on behalf of the school district, including Sebastian River Principal Peggy Jones, Superintendent Harry La Cava, Assistant Principal Billy Wilson and District Executive Director of Human Resources Kevin Browning.
Jones was the district’s first witness of Day 2 in the hearing and detailed the order of events regarding the school’s investigation. She also provided reason for her decision to remove him from his coaching duties, citing that he waited a week after hearing an incident might have occurred and that after Young heard about the possibility of a bottle being involved, he did not attempt to contact her.
“When he learned of the bottle, he should have come to me,” Jones said.
La Cava said he was not a part of the investigation process but received periodic updates and used the investigation report for the basis of his decision to recommend to the board a suspension of Young.
Wilensky asked if La Cava remembered the information he provided La Cava regarding what the attorney called misquoted information in witness statement reports. He said Young was sourced to a quote that the victim’s mother said in reference to the victim’s parents and Young’s original decision not to discuss the bottle when reporting the incident.
La Cava said he took the information into consideration, though Wilensky pointed out that he still used pieces of that incorrect information in his agenda notes prior to Young’s appeal to the school board.
“There was knowledge of a bottle, and he didn’t say anything,” La Cava said.
Young’s counsel, Mark Wilensky of Dubiner & Wilensky, P.A., in West Palm Beach, called two witnesses out of turn, with the court’s approval, prior to the district’s final witnesses because of concerns the witnesses would be unavailable after Thursday morning.
Parent Thomas Whittington Jr. and his son, Thomas Whittington III, a member of the baseball team, testified that Young called a meeting the morning following the incident to find out what happened, but no players came forward. Thomas Whittington III, a senior this year, also said Young addressed t he team prior to leaving for the tournament and told the players they “need to represent the high school in a good, disciplined manner.”
Following a lunch break, Wilensky called parent Jim Mueller, a parent chaperon on the trip, to the stand, and he corroborated what the Whittington’s both said. He also said he heard of some possible “wrestling” the night of the incident and told Young he would check it out, but everything was quiet.
Wilensky has several more witnesses to call, but both counsel expect the hearing to conclude by noon Friday.
By Jamie Ruff
Published: May 7, 2009
FARMVILLE—A sorority founded more than a century ago at Longwood University is closing its chapter there in the aftermath of allegations of hazing and underage drinking, officials said.
The closing of the Alpha Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha comes less than a month after it had been reinstated with sanctions for policy violations.
“All of Zeta Tau Alpha is deeply disappointed that the members of Alpha Chapter have shown disregard for the standards of conduct and expectations of behavior that our fraternity values,“ national president Laura Ladewig Mauro said in a statement.
“Closing any chapter is a painful decision; closing your first chapter is difficult beyond words,“ Mauro said. “But all chapters must abide by the ideals and principles of our sisterhood if they wish to remain a part of our organization.“
On May 18-19, representatives from ZTA International will conduct hearings with current chapter members that could result in expulsion from the sorority. At the same time, Longwood will conduct an administrative hearing regarding the chapter.
Longwood said in a statement that it hoped ZTA would be able to return to the campus in the future.
Longwood claims to be the only college in the country where as many as four national sororities were founded. The others are Kappa Delta, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Sigma Alpha.