VMI Not Amused by Humor Web Site

Officials at the Virginia Military Institute have blocked student access to a humor Web site after learning that several postings on the site include vicious and sexually explicit remarks about the school’s first pregnant cadet.

Officials said they are unsure if the comments, which include references to the woman’s size and honor, were posted by students, but they said they blocked access to investigate the matter.

“This is something that we don’t normally do,” said Col. Mike Strickler, a school spokesman. “There’s some deplorable and regrettable language and messages on there, and we’re trying to determine what appropriate action we can take in accordance with our policies.”

Officials learned that there was a pregnant cadet in their ranks this year and have allowed her to stay in school. School policy calls for treating pregnancy as a medical disability, such as a broken bone. The school has a rule against sex in the barracks, but administrators said they have no evidence that the cadet broke that rule.

VMI became the country’s last all-male military school to accept women in 1996 after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to do so. There are 64 women among the 1,300 cadets at VMI, and seven women have graduated.

Students and officials said Wednesday that they were unaware of any direct threats or abuse, whether physical or verbal, against the pregnant cadet, but they said many students think she has denigrated the honor of the state-supported school.

“There is a feeling of disappointment in her actions and that the school could be judged by her actions,” said Public Relations Capt. Sean Collins, a senior who acts as spokesman for the student body.

The Web site takes articles off the news and allows users to comment on them, lists jokes and offers chat rooms.

Web site officials said Wednesday they they were unaware that VMI had blocked its site, and they offered to remove offensive postings if the school asks them to. Co-owner Jay Skills said there have been about 15,000 visits to the VMI page since it went up Friday, adding that the company traced at least 50 postings to computers at the academy.

One posting, by someone identifying himself as cowboy 201, says: “i am a 1st classman here at vmi . . . i would like to thank all the women out there who felt that they had to destroy my school and its traditions . . . VMI men will never like you, we only tolerate you because we have to.”

Derrick Bodkin, a junior at VMI, said many students frequent the site because “we don’t get a lot of humor in our lives, so we go to other outlets.” Bodkin said he visits the site but has posted no remarks about the pregnant cadet.

Those who have made the negative comments, “really make the school look bad,” said Bodkin, who supports the pregnant cadet. “There are a lot of ignorant statements said there . . . I want to set the record straight that we’re not all [like that].”