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Three Norwich University students are facing criminal charges following an investigation into allegations of hazing involving female athletes at the military college in Vermont, VT Digger reported.
One student is being charged with simple assault, one with reckless endangerment and one with both simple assault and reckless endangerment, police said. In addition, they and three other students are being ticketed for hazing, which is a civil infraction that carries a fine of between $1,000 and $5,000.
Five of the students are members of the women’s rugby team, and one is on the women’s lacrosse team, the Associated Press reported.
The charges stem from an incident on March 20, when Northfield police received a report from Amanda Lodi, a member of the women’s rugby team, alleging that she had been threatened at knifepoint in a dorm room. In a subsequent interview with police, Lodi said other members of the women’s rugby team “branded” her using pliers and a lighter while she was too intoxicated to object.
Reviewing Lodi’s cellphone with her permission, police found a video showing Lodi herself participating in an alleged hazing attack on another female student, using a “technique I would call waterboarding,” one police officer said.
Norwich said the students involved were immediately suspended from participating in athletic competition. The university has “zero-tolerance regarding hazing misconduct from our students,” Norwich said in a statement, and vowed to take disciplinary action against the perpetrators now that the police investigation is complete.
