Hazing Issue Ends a Team’s Season

THOUSAND OAKS — A pattern of hazing serious enough to prompt the cancellation of Westlake High School’s wrestling season has brought sheriff’s deputies to the suburban campus to investigate what one school official says is possibly criminal misconduct.

Detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes division spent the last two days assessing whether the wrestling team’s actions rose to the level of criminal wrongdoing.

School administrators are conducting their own investigation, which could lead to disciplinary action such as suspensions or expulsions.

“I would suggest that hazing covers a wide range of behaviors--from spraying shaving cream on a kid to committing crimes,” said Assistant Supt. Rich Simpson of the Conejo Valley Unified School District. “I think the issue we’re talking about very possibly--if not probably--involves criminal behavior.”

Several Westlake High students and parents have reported that the conduct involved a simulated sexual act with a broomstick. Whether the misconduct went as far as sexual assault was not known.

Westlake High Athletic Director Joseph Pawlick has declined to detail the hazing, describing it only as pervasive “gross team misconduct” involving at least half of the wrestling unit’s 27 members.

As of Friday, no charges had been filed against any students.

“We’re continuing our investigation to determine whether there was any criminal misconduct,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Sparks, who is heading the review. “As of now, we haven’t determined exactly what happened.”

Some parents, however, say the students’ conduct bears more resemblance to roughhousing than criminal activity.

They worry that a protracted investigation by school officials--which could extend into mid-January--unfairly stigmatizes their children, some of whom were not involved.

“We want an investigation--not a witch hunt,” said Bill Hutton, who added that his wrestler son, Doug, has already been cleared because the youth was off campus when the incident occurred.

Two dozen parents of wrestlers have complained that school administrators are leaving them in the dark. They demanded in a letter prepared Thursday that the program be reinstated.

“I want to know what happened,” Karen Nelson said at a parents meeting Thursday night. “I want the guilty punished. I want the innocent exonerated.”

The school responded by sending letters to each wrestler’s family, inviting parents to schedule one-on-one, private conferences about their child’s involvement or lack thereof, Simpson said Friday.

More than one parent said that school administrators were too concerned with “political correctness” and that the hazing amounted to little more than “horseplay.”

“I certainly wouldn’t call it that,” Simpson responded. “Neither would any of the [school] board members, administrators or parents I’ve talked to.”

School officials speak instead of “gross team misconduct” and “unethical student athlete behavior”--usually foreign terms at this academically rigorous school set in one of Thousand Oaks’ most affluent neighborhoods.

Athletic Director Pawlick announced the termination of the wrestling season Wednesday, citing pervasive and repeated incidents of misconduct.

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Along with Principal Curt Luft, Pawlick--who is also the school’s assistant principal--was looking into the hazing. Pawlick’s investigation was scheduled to end Friday--the last day of school before winter break--but he did not return a call seeking comment.

Luft, and possibly school trustees, would hand out any additional discipline covered under the district’s anti-hazing policy.

The misconduct first came to light last week, Luft said, prompting repeated interviews with the team and individual wrestlers.

“There is a continuum in terms of the gravity of unethical student athlete behavior,” Pawlick said. “I can’t tell you what the minimum or maximum is here. But we will tolerate none of it.”

He added: “I want everyone to know that we at Westlake High School expect probity from all our student athletes and our coaches. We expect everyone to be above board and ethical. . . . We became aware of aberrant student behavior and we’re dealing with it immediately and effectively.”

Folmar is a Times staff writer and Metcalfe is a correspondent. Times staff writer Vince Kowalick contributed to this story.