VMI Suspends Female Cadet for Striking Male Student

A month after admitting women in a freshman class for the first time, Virginia Military Academy on Tuesday suspended a female cadet for two semesters for striking a male upperclassman.

The Lexington, Va., military college said the woman lost her temper while being disciplined by an older student.

Angelica Garza was suspended for two semesters for hitting and pushing the school’s sergeant of the guard on Aug. 29 after another upperclassman harassed her as part of the ritualized abuse that freshmen receive, sources told the Washington Post.

“The cadets we have are put under stress,” said Mike Strickler, a VMI spokesman. “We teach them to react with self-control and self-restraint, but in this case that didn’t happen.”

School officials said the decision to suspend her was reached after a hearing of the VMI executive committee on Monday night.

Officials said they were not sure whether Garza, one of 28 in a 426-member freshman class, would return next year.

Garza’s parents, who drove her home Tuesday, said they approve of the school’s handling of the case and do not believe she was treated differently because of her gender. Their daughter was not present during the interview with the Post.

The 158-year-old college, the last state-supported military institute to admit only men, was forced to open its doors by a 1996 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cadets, called “rats,” are subject to regular discipline from upperclassmen, who can taunt them and interrogate them at will about the rules and traditions of their school. Upperclassmen can order push-ups if the freshmen fail to answer correctly.

Upperclassmen are barred from treating the 28 freshman women differently than any male student. The goal of the discipline is to prepare the cadets for the rigors of military life.

So far, 32 men and four women in the freshman class have left VMI since school began Aug. 18.

The college has been working hard to avoid the problems that befell the formerly male-only Citadel, in South Carolina, when it admitted women. The Citadel now faces a lawsuit by a woman who claims she was singled out for sexual harassment when she enrolled last year.