9A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
Small town laments loss of football season due to hazing
Hazing took
place at a camp
at Camp Rilea
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
PHILOMATH — The
scoreboard at the edge of Phi-
lomath High School’s foot-
ball ield is dark. The stands
are empty. This year, there
are no varsity games that
brought together many of the
town’s 4,500 people.
Hazing inlicted by upper-
classmen on 11 freshman
players at a conditioning
camp at Camp Rilea in War-
renton has led to the season’s
cancellation, investigations
by authorities and the school
district, and calls for healing
and for the tradition to stop.
Studies show more than
half of college students in
sports teams, clubs and orga-
nizations have experienced
hazing. Many were hazed in
high school. Just last week in
California, three varsity high
school football players were
charged in a separate incident.
Breaking the cycle is dif-
icult, but Philomath is tack-
ling the issue head on.
“The school district is
paying attention to both what
happened and what could
prevent this from happen-
ing again,” Superintendent
Melissa Goff told The Asso-
ciated Press. “We’re pay-
ing very close attention to
the mental health needs of
our students and how we,
AP Photos/Andrew Selsky
LEFT: Rhonda Lewis speaks during an interview at the C D & J cafe in Philomath. One of the town’s biggest events is
Friday night football games, but football season has been canceled at the high school in the midst of a hazing episode.
RIGHT: Philomath High School football scoreboard is shown in Philomath.
as a community, can pull
together.”
Small town
Philomath is a small,
sleepy town. Trafic barrels
past shuttered businesses on
Main Street, a highway head-
ing into the Coastal Range to
the west. Corvallis, home to
Oregon State University, lies
3 miles to the east.
The town formed around
Philomath College, which
existed from 1865 to 1929.
Its name is Greek for “lover
of learning.”
Philomath has little in the
way of entertainment, and
several people said the loss
of the football season will be
a blow.
“It’s a little bitty town,
and there’s not much else to
do, so there was usually a
pretty big turnout there,” said
Rhonda Lewis, a waitress at
the C D & J Cafe, on Main
Street. “I don’t know what’s
going to happen now.”
Pastors representing seven
churches have made them-
selves available “to listen,
pray for and offer counseling
to local students, parents and
school district personnel,”
said Jim Hall, senior pastor
of Living Faith Community
Church. They’ve had conver-
sations with a broad spectrum
of townspeople, Hall said.
Investigations
The school district con-
tracted an independent inves-
tigator, Goff said. That inquiry
is ongoing. The Oregon State
Police also investigated,
because the incident happened
at a state-owned camp.
Benton County District
Attorney John Haroldson
said 11 freshman players had
intimate parts of their bodies
targeted during an initiation.
In court Thursday, one of
six upperclassmen charged
with misdemeanors pleaded
guilty to harassment. As part
of his sentence, he will speak
out against hazing and stand
up for the victims.
Haroldson, who advo-
cated for the term, said vic-
tims are being blamed for the
football season’s cancellation
and some students’ expul-
sions, and instead should be
recognized for their courage.
The hazing existed for
years, “instilled as part of the
institution,” and had gotten
worse, Haroldson said.
“The coaches didn’t stop
it,” he told Circuit Court
Judge Locke A. Williams.
“They chose not to stop it or
couldn’t stop it.”
Refuges: Volunteers play a key role
Continued from Page 1A
budget to move law enforce-
ment oficers to preserves scat-
tered in remote locations across
the West, said David Houghton,
president of the National Wild-
life Refuge Association. Many
refuges are patrolled by a sin-
gle oficer who covers several
states.
Some refuge managers have
since sent their law enforce-
ment oficers to additional
training or updated security
plans.
“People are paying atten-
tion to that whole dynamic. I
only have one law enforcement
oficer here and she covers the
entire range of refuges, and
she’s by herself,” said Michelle
Potter, who manages seven ref-
uges and three other habitats in
and around Long Island, New
York. “I worry about safety.”
Local refuges
Nearby, the Julia Butler
Hansen Refuge for the Colum-
bian White-tailed Deer is part
of the Willapa Complex, which
includes the Willapa National
Wildlife Refuge and Lewis
and Clark National Wildlife
Refuge.
All together, the refuges
protects approximately 56,000
acres of important habitat for
birds such as migratory water-
fowl, endangered species such
as the Columbian white-tailed
deer, and ish such as salmon
and sturgeon, according Megan
Nagel, National Wildlife Ref-
uge System’s regional public
affairs oficer.
As for stafing, “At the ref-
uges, we work with what we
have,” she said.
She points to conservation
actions to restore habitat that
wildlife depend on, including
stream restoration for salmon
and other aquatic species,
coastal dune and beach resto-
ration for threatened snowy
plover and streaked horned
larks and estuary restoration in
Willapa Bay.
Nagel says volunteers are a
key part of the mix.
“Environmental education
is an important part of what
we do at the refuges, and vol-
unteers are an important part
of our success. They play an
especially important role in our
environmental and interpreta-
tion programs,” she said. “For
example, the Friends of Wil-
lapa National Wildlife Refuge
work with us to run the fourth-
grade education program in
Paciic County (Washington).
Together, we work with teach-
ers to provide kids the oppor-
tunity to learn about wildlife
in the classroom and at the
refuge.”
Sam Beebe/Wikimedia Commons
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge is one of three refuges
in our area.
Tight budget
Vanessa Kauffman, a
spokesman for U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, declined to
comment on the study but did
acknowledge a tight budget in
a phone interview with the AP.
The agency oversees the refuge
system.
“The budget determines the
staff, and if you have attrition
and you have a shortened bud-
get, you’re not going to be able
to replace staff,” said Kauff-
man. “We do what we can.”
The refuges, as well as 178
other federally protected areas
dedicated to waterfowl habi-
tat and wetland preservation,
attract 47.5 million visitors a
year for bird-watching, hunt-
ing, ishing and educational
activities, but their primary
mission is the preservation of
critical habitat for fragile spe-
cies. Many, but not all, are in
remote areas.
Because they are focused
on wildlife preservation, ref-
uges are less well known by
the public than their lashier,
selie-friendly cousins at the
National Park Service, yet they
have expanded rapidly in recent
years as funding has shrunk.
Since 2010, the overall ref-
uge budget dropped by $17 mil-
lion to $486 million while the
system added more than 700
million acres, said Houghton.
Much of that expansion
comes from the addition of two
massive marine monuments,
including one designated in the
Atlantic Ocean last week by
President Barack Obama that
includes 5,000 square miles of
underwater canyons and moun-
tains off the New England
coast.
Meanwhile, existing refuges
are struggling to complete their
mission with a staff so pared
down that some can’t keep on
volunteers because there’s no
one to manage them.
In Rhode Island, for exam-
ple, a refuge complex cut edu-
cational programs for school-
children by 20 percent, lost
its visitor center manager and
hasn’t been able to treat huge
swaths of land for invasive
species.
Charlie Vandemoer over-
sees ive refuges in Rhode
Island but has security from
only one oficer who also
patrols refuges in Massachu-
setts and Connecticut.
He relies on more than
23,000 volunteer hours a year
to get the most critical work
done and recently sent his soli-
tary law enforcement oficer for
additional training.
“If it wasn’t for volunteers,
they’d have to shut the doors,”
said Marvin Plenart, a retired
manager in Portland who used
to oversee the Western region.
“It’s pathetic, is what it is.”
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The judge noted haz-
ing isn’t isolated to Philo-
math and said there must
be an “understanding that
this is a practice that cannot
continue.”
A 22-year-old volun-
teer assistant coach stands
charged in Clatsop County
where the hazing occurred.
All the coaches are on leave,
Goff said.
Canceled season
The decision was made
to cancel the varsity sea-
son after other athletes and
coaches evaluated the readi-
ness of eligible players. The
junior varsity season remains
on track.
Brittany Dryden, manager
of Wilson’s NAPA Auto Parts
store, feels the cancellation is
“a little harsh.”
“I understand people make
mistakes ... but I don’t see
why we have to punish the
whole football team, and pun-
ish other people that weren’t
involved, had nothing to do
with it,” Dryden said. “It’s
just not fair to those kids.”
Goff has a rebuttal: “High
school football in Philomath
is important, but it is not as
important as our kids.”
Hazing might be part of
human nature, and “it dei-
nitely goes back to ancient
Greece and Rome,” said
Susan Lipkins, a psycholo-
gist and an expert on hazing.
Victims take the experi-
ence to college and the mil-
itary, primed to be hazed
again and again, Lipkins said
in a telephone interview from
Port Washington, New York.
Over time, they often
become perpetrators, feel-
ing they “have the right to do
unto others what was done to
them,” Lipkins said.
Ending the cycle requires
breaking the silence.
Philomath seems to be
handling its case right so far,
Lipkins said. To prevent haz-
ing, schools must encour-
age victims to come forward,
using clearly established
methods like the internet and
even reporting abuse anony-
mously so they aren’t labeled
wimps.
But few high schools and
colleges follow through on
promises to eliminate hazing,
Lipkins noted.
“They react,” she said.
“They don’t prepare for it and
don’t have a system in place
in any meaningful way.”
Attention Hunters
&
Forest Recreationists
he Lewis & Clark Timberlands managed by
GreenWood Resources in Clatsop County will again
open for motorized recreational access this fall.
Public access is allowed from one hour before sun-
rise until one hour ater sunset. Camping, camp-
ires, of-road driving, ATVs and motorcycles are
prohibited. All access is subject to change.
Gates open from Oct. 1, through Nov. 25, 2016
• L&C Camp Gates
• Elk Mtn. W (98/99)
(71/75)
• L&C ML at Saddle
• 400 Line (72)
Mtn. Park Rd East/
• 300 Line (73)
West (56/57)
• Klootchy Park (39)
• Fisher ML (83)
• Sugarloaf (24)
• Twilight Gates
• Charlie Cr. (26)
(110/113/114)
• Clatsop Fir XO (25) • Bear Cr. 300 (80)
• Tidewater (49)
• Elk Mtn. East (53)
• Snow Point (54)
Any gate that may be open but is not listed
above could be closed at any time, as unlisted
gates are open for active Lewis & Clark Timber-
lands operations only.
Please report any illegal or suspicious activity
to the Sherif ’s Oice at 503.325.2061 or the
Oregon State Police at 1.800.452.7888
TO REPORT A FIRE OR EMERGENCY
CALL 911 Road maps showing gate locations
are available at our Gearhart oice. Current ac-
cess information is available on the Recreational
Hotline at 503.738.6351, ext.2.
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