Hazing Gets Whole Cornell Lacrosse Team Suspended

Players in trouble after 'coerced' drinking
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2013 3:50 AM CDT
Hazing Gets Whole Cornell Lacrosse Team Suspended
Duke's David Lawson, right, brings the ball past Cornell's Jason Noble (45) during the second half of an NCAA college Division 1 semifinal lacrosse game on Saturday, May 25, 2013, in Philadelphia.   (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

It's going to be a quiet autumn for the Cornell men's lacrosse team, which made it to the NCAA semifinals last year. The whole team was suspended temporarily on Sept. 13 over what the university calls alleged "coerced consumption of alcohol by underage freshmen"—"a team hazing incident," in the words of the school's athletics director. Now, "all fall competitions are cancelled," though the team will be allowed to keep practicing, officials say, per the Ithaca Journal.

"Under President David Skorton, Cornell University has been a strong voice against hazing and the dangerous rituals that some think are merely rites of passage," notes a university VP, per the Cornell Daily Sun. University officials plan to "work with this team intensely" to educate players on the dangers of hazing, the athletics director says. The Big Red lacrosse team went 14-4 last year and was due to play an exhibition game against the Iroquois National Team this month; next month, they were scheduled to play in a tournament alongside Penn State, Bucknell, and Lehigh. (More lacrosse stories.)

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