Police Seize Lethal High School Fraternity Paddle. It had hacksaw blades
The paddle with a wooden handle is made of two pieces of leather each one quarter of an inch thick stitched together. Hacksaw blades were inserted between the pieces of leather to give the paddle stability and weight. It weighs about five pounds, is six inches wide and 20 inches long.
Police
Seize Lethal Fraternity Paddle
Police Chief James V. Hicks displayed a large rugged looking
leather paddle in his office today [23 January 1959]
and called it a lethal weapon The “lethal weapon” was confiscated by two of his
officers who interrupted a meeting of a high school fraternity last night in a
house on the 2100 block of 56th Avenue.
The paddle with a wooden handle is made of two pieces
of leather each one quarter of an inch thick stitched together. Hacksaw blades
were inserted between the pieces of leather to give the paddle stability and
weight. Hicks estimated it weighs about five pounds, is six inches wide and 20
inches long.
Several parents complained to Hicks last fall that
their sons were sent home from the fraternity initiation with ugly bruises
marking them and in some instances they had been hit so hard with the paddle
the skin was broken.
Learn
Of Paddling
The police learned that the final paddling of the fall
semester initiates was scheduled last night so they visited the meeting and
picked up the paddle
“This thing could break a neck, back, arm or leg” said
Hicks “Its use demonstrates nothing less than a sadistic trend of mind
“There are decent ways to conduct initiations without
inflicting physical punishment.”
Not
School Clubs
S. A. Pepper, principal of the C. K. McClatchy High
School which the fraternity initiates attend said the fraternities while not
school clubs are permitted to function.
He said their constitutions submitted to the school
authorities prohibit hazing.
“But hazing is
impossible to control,” he said “Unfortunately someone could be injured
although we have not had that experience here.
“When we hear about these things we call the officers
in and talk to them. They understand that hazing is wrong and we try to work
with them.
“We do not condone hazing.”
The police officers said when they took the paddle the
president of the fraternity told them he and several other members of the
fraternity are opposed to the use of the paddle and promised to try to stop it.
As published in The Sacramento Bee
(California, United States), 23 January 1959.
Picture credit: The Sacramento Bee.
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