Still Under Fire

CHARLESTON, South Carolina: Allegations of hazing at the Citadel grew more serious Tuesday as two female cadets claimed they were subjected to violent abuse on more than one occasion. According to the cadets, who were admitted in August after the school dropped its all-male admissions policy, they were doused with nail polish and had their clothes set afire on three separate occasions. The first reports of such treatment surfaced last week. One of the cadets, Jeanie Mentavlos, also claimed male cadets forced her to drop her pants so that they could take a tape-recorder she had concealed in her clothing. Mentavlos, according to her lawyer, said she was wearing the device because she and fellow cadet Kim Messer believed they needed to tape conversations with the male cadets because otherwise nobody would believe their accounts of what was being said to them. But apparently, the intimidation didn't stop there. The women said some male cadets shoved them with rifles, sang sexually suggestive songs and forced them to drink alcoholic beverages in their dorm rooms. Mentavlos and Messer claim they attempted to inform superiors but were ignored until Mentavlos' brother, a senior at The Citadel, alerted school officials. Two male cadets were suspended after last week's allegations, but officials at the military school refused to comment on today's charges. Two other females attending The Citadel, Nancy Mace and Petra Lovetinska, have not made similar hazing allegations.