UW Stevens Point Dance Team Cleared of Hazing Suspicions

By Alison Struve
WSAW.com

Practice is back on for the UW-Stevens Point Dance Team. Their status was in doubt after some racy photos were posted on the Internet that some believed showed new members being hazed.

Now that a student panel has found the team not guilty of hazing, the young women hope the community will give them another chance.

Team co-captain April Mallow says they just had tryouts for this year's team last Thursday, so they couldn't have hazed new members in the spring. And that's what the team told the student panel earlier this week. They explained the pictures show college kids having fun, but were misinterpreted by a lot of people.

April says after a party, one of the team members posted photos on the Web so the other girls could see them. She says they were all shocked and disappointed when someone reported the Web sites to UWSP, since they didn't think they were doing anything wrong.

"I guess we'll just learn our lesson and next time be more cautious, not only with what we put online, but what we do in general, so that people don't get the wrong impression," Mallow says.

April says she's glad her peers judged the case because they understood the situation. And now, the team is getting ready to perform and defend their national championship.

The girls did plead responsible to underage drinking, so the panel put the team on probation for six months. And the captains will do a workshop for the cheerleaders and mascots about the dangers of underage drinking and hazing.

The team plans to perform for UWSP's Homecoming on October 21.