AMESBURY - The family of University of Maine junior Ashley Waters is outraged after the school punished her and two of her softball teammates for "participating in hazing activities" at a drinking party, but the school officials are standing by their decision, saying even "subtle hazing" needs to stop.
On Wednesday, the university announced it had handed down penalties to the entire team but issued harsher punishments to three players, including Waters, a former star at Amesbury High School who was suspended for two games and stripped of her captaincy.
The penalties stem from recently discovered pictures of a "rookie party" in March 2006, where members of the UMaine softball team were pictured playing party games and drinking.
Jacqui Waters, Ashley's mother, said she and her daughter were shaken by the university's decision, which they say is unfounded. The family agrees that Ashley drank at a party while underage but says the university falsely implied she helped haze other students.
"She was a freshman at a rookie party. She obviously wasn't hazing herself," Jacqui Waters said. "You're basically ruining a kid's reputation for being at a party and having a few beers."
Ashley Waters said she could not comment on the issue.
Robert Dana, the university's dean of students, said that anyone at a hazing event would be implicated as participating, even the people being hazed. If the students had come forward earlier, they might not have been punished as harshly, Dana said. But because they were found out, they have to deal with breaking the university's rules.
"If a person is at the event, and they're not stopping it or facilitating exposure (of the event) to the athletic director or our office, they're complicit in hazing," Dana said.
The incident was investigated by UMaine officials after a man who runs the anti-hazing Web site ncaahazing.com discovered a gallery of more than 100 pictures posted on a team member's MySpace page under the title "rookie party." The party, which took place in March 2006, when Waters was a freshman, was apparently an annual event for the past few years at UMaine, Dana said.
The pictures show a number of different girls participating in what appears to be drinking and party games. Upon finding the photos four weeks ago, William Schut, a former athletic director at a New York state university who now runs the anti-hazing Web site, brought the photos to the attention of UMaine officials. He also posted blog entries that decried the incident and urged school officials to take action, often citing the school's hazing policy.
On Wednesday, the university announced it had handed down penalties to the entire team but issued harsher punishments to three players, including Waters, a former star at Amesbury High School who was suspended for two games and stripped of her captaincy.
The penalties stem from recently discovered pictures of a "rookie party" in March 2006, where members of the UMaine softball team were pictured playing party games and drinking.
Jacqui Waters, Ashley's mother, said she and her daughter were shaken by the university's decision, which they say is unfounded. The family agrees that Ashley drank at a party while underage but says the university falsely implied she helped haze other students.
"She was a freshman at a rookie party. She obviously wasn't hazing herself," Jacqui Waters said. "You're basically ruining a kid's reputation for being at a party and having a few beers."
Ashley Waters said she could not comment on the issue.
Robert Dana, the university's dean of students, said that anyone at a hazing event would be implicated as participating, even the people being hazed. If the students had come forward earlier, they might not have been punished as harshly, Dana said. But because they were found out, they have to deal with breaking the university's rules.
"If a person is at the event, and they're not stopping it or facilitating exposure (of the event) to the athletic director or our office, they're complicit in hazing," Dana said.
The incident was investigated by UMaine officials after a man who runs the anti-hazing Web site ncaahazing.com discovered a gallery of more than 100 pictures posted on a team member's MySpace page under the title "rookie party." The party, which took place in March 2006, when Waters was a freshman, was apparently an annual event for the past few years at UMaine, Dana said.
The pictures show a number of different girls participating in what appears to be drinking and party games. Upon finding the photos four weeks ago, William Schut, a former athletic director at a New York state university who now runs the anti-hazing Web site, brought the photos to the attention of UMaine officials. He also posted blog entries that decried the incident and urged school officials to take action, often citing the school's hazing policy.
Schut says on the site that he is trying to draw attention to hazing and what he considers lax punishment from the NCAA, and spotlights a number of similar incidents from schools across the country. He couldn't be reached for comment.
UMaine officials interviewed Waters, other students and former students who were at the party, Dana said. After an investigation was completed Monday, UMaine officials stripped Waters and teammate Courtney Gingrich of their captaincies and suspended them and teammate Jenna Balent. Waters and Balent were suspended for two games while Gingrich was suspended for 10 games. All three were freshmen at the rookie party, according to Waters' brother, Corey.
In addition, the entire softball team will be suspended for one week at the start of the 2008 season.
Jacqui Waters said she was fine with Ashley being disciplined for underage drinking. But she disagreed that any hazing took place at the party, as people were allowed to leave at any time. Peer pressure may have led her daughter, who typically doesn't drink, to the party, Jacqui Waters said, but she did not feel uncomfortable there.
"She felt obligated by tradition to attend," she said. "But she never at any time felt forced to do anything."
However, even peer pressure can lead to more dangerous hazing, Dana said. He said the university considers any instance of people trying to join an organization being intimidated and put at risk of physical and mental harm by those in power to be hazing.
Because "subtle" hazing can be an entry to dangerous behavior, the university has to crack down on all hazing, Dana said.
"If you can get a person to put on other people's clothes and perform pseudo-sexual acts, why can't you get them to drink?" Dana said. "And if you can get them to drink a little, why not guzzle a bottle of whiskey? That's not what was happening here, but it could have."
But Jeanne Bowden, Ashley's aunt, said she thought the university has not gone after real hazing problems and is instead placing too much blame on her niece.
"I believe the university is getting away without addressing hazing," Bowden said. "They used her as a scapegoat."
Waters, a former Cape Ann Player of the Year who led the Amesbury High softball team to the state finals in 2005, was a star second-baseman for the Black Bears last year, leading the team in hits and finishing second in batting average. According to her brother, she carries a 3.7 grade-point average.
Reached by phone, she said she could not comment. Her family said the school instructed her to not talk to the press.
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