Hazing Incident Prompts Changes at High School

Glendale Unified School District administrators say they are tightening supervision of after-school sports, revising athletic guidelines and tearing down a football locker room and rebuilding it after eight high school football players were suspended last month for an alleged pattern of hazing.

The eight boys pinned younger players on the locker room floor and poked them in the buttocks with sawed-off broom handles and a mini-baseball bat, according to school and police officials.

The players were suspended for five days and ordered to perform community service.

Administrators said they learned of the locker room hazing on March 1 when an after-school tutor overheard two freshmen talking about several recent incidents.

No one was seriously hurt, said Glendale Police Sgt. Rick Young. After talking to more than 20 players on the team, detectives closed the case March 16 without pressing charges, saying the incidents amounted to no more than horseplay.

A week later Pete Smolin, Glendale High’s head football coach, abruptly resigned. He said he had not known about the hazing and that it wasn’t a “major part” of his decision to quit, but he declined to elaborate.

Glendale Board of Education members say they were shocked when they learned of the incidents. “This is very humiliating, disgusting, degrading behavior,” said board member Chuck Sambar.

The football hazing continues to be the talk of the 3,500-student campus.

“You keep hearing more and more details,” said Aaron Moe, a Glendale High senior.

“I mean, come on, what those guys were doing was pretty odd.”