Hazing

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said Friday that they were investigating an alleged hazing incident involving the boys' volleyball team at Taft High School. The probe was launched after district officials learned Tuesday of "allegations of a hazing gone bad" at the school, said David Holmquist, the district's chief operating officer. He declined to discuss details, citing the ongoing investigation. After the allegations surfaced Tuesday evening, L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines ordered a preliminary inquiry.

Six employees at Taft High School were reassigned Tuesday while school district and law enforcement officials investigate an alleged hazing incident in the boys locker room on the Woodland Hills campus. Los Angeles Unified School District officials declined to identify the employees who were removed from the school and assigned to district offices, but district sources said Principal Sharon Thomas and volleyball coach Arman Mercado were among them.

Four young men in San Luis Obispo surrendered Thursday to face charges alleging that a fraternity hazing ritual caused the alcohol death of a university freshman from Texas, police said. Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin was found dead in December with a blood-alcohol level between 0.39% and 0.44%. Police said he had to drink a bag full of alcoholic beverages as part of the fraternity pledging process.

A campus fraternity in Pomona has been suspended while the school investigates claims that a student was burned during an initiation. Cal Poly Pomona announced Wednesday that it suspended the local chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon and nine fraternity members. College spokesman Tim Lynch said the school is investigating an alleged initiation in which 14 students were blindfolded, driven to the high desert in March and placed around a bonfire.

Two fraternity brothers each received a two-year prison term from Circuit Judge Kathleen F. Dekker, who said she wanted to make sure that the sentences under a new felony hazing law served as a deterrent. Florida A&M University students Michael Morton, 23, of Fort Lauderdale, and Jason Harris, 25, of Jacksonville, were led from the Tallahassee courtroom in handcuffs. The students were charged with hazing Marcus Jones, 20, of Decatur, Ga.

Three fraternity brothers accused in a case that tested Florida's law against hazing avoided prison by pleading no contest to a lesser charge in the beating of a prospective member. Each received probation, including 30 days in a sheriff's work camp, after entering the pleas in Tallahassee to misdemeanor hazing. Prosecutors offered the plea deal only after two mistrials on felony hazing charges. Five Florida A&M University fraternity brothers had been tried together.

The Police Commission reaffirmed its zero-tolerance policy on hazing Tuesday in response to an executive directive from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa forbidding the practice after problems arose in the Fire Department. Police Administrator Gerald Chaleff told the panel that hazing has long been discouraged by policy and that there have only been four hazing complaints since 1994.

The Los Angeles City Fire Department is investigating allegations that a young African American firefighter found his locker at a North Hollywood station vandalized in a racist manner in recent days.

The family of a college student who died after an alleged fraternity hazing incident two years ago has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the fraternity and UC Irvine. Kenny Luong, 19, suffered fatal head injuries during an August 2005 football game held at a city park to initiate pledges into Lambda Phi Epsilon, a nationwide Asian fraternity.

Acting Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas L. Barry eclipsed his own news conference about his first 100 days Tuesday by announcing that he had just learned of a new report of possible firefighter harassment. But city officials said that Barry's swift launch of investigations into the allegation of anti-Semitism at a fire station, and another case disclosed last week, were a better demonstration than a speech about reforms being underway.