Bad Jocks or Bad Coach?
May 18, 2006 -- -- The pictures show girls gone wild -- but these are Catholic girls, freshmen from the Catholic University of America's women's lacrosse team, girls everyone expects to be "wholesome." But the initiation pictures posted on badjocks.com are anything but.
In one photo, a young woman with a frightened look on her face, seated on the shoulders of a stripper with her torso facing his mouth, holds on as if for dear life. Another picture shows a girl, fully clothed, but in a position for a sexual act with a thong-wearing stripper. Other pictures show the names of very "dirty" deeds -- deeds the Catholic Church deems sinful -- written all over the girls' bodies and shirts.
The man who runs badjocks.com said he got the project started to give people a chuckle, but with its focus on college sports team initiations and hazings, it has turned a spotlight on a practice that has resulted in more than 30 deaths over the past three decades.
Badjocks.com shows initiation photos from more than a dozen different colleges and universities. Next to the picture, the site links to the hazing policy of the school involved. One typical policy is from Kenyon College: "The College will not tolerate hazing on the part of any individual, organization or group."
Officials at the Catholic University of America said they're investigating this incident. In a statement released by the university, the school's athletics director Michael Allen said: "If the evidence demonstrates that any of our current students willingly participated in these activities, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. The president and I will meet with all the coaches at the university to discuss additional measures and policies that we can implement to ensure that in the future this kind of deplorable situation does not occur."
Psychologist Susan Lipkins said hazing policies in general don't do much. "This should be a wake-up call to the coaches that they should change their curriculum, not their policies," she said. "It's the adults' responsibility to teach them, not punish them."
