Southern Utah cheerleaders disciplined for alleged hazing

ST. GEORGE, Utah — The Washington County School District is asking any victims who may have been involved in a hazing incident at Desert Hills High School in June to come forward.

According to the St. George News, the hazing was captured in a series of videos. Those videos show a number of older girls bringing in underclassmen into a room, one at a time, then telling them to lie down on the floor. Next, someone holds a pillow over their faces, and they are told to do a sit-up as soon as the pillow is removed.

Upperclassmen would reportedly position themselves over the younger girls in a squatting position, their bare buttocks painted with a red substance. The videos then allegedly show the younger girls sitting up, into the older girls’ backsides, and getting the red substance all over their faces.

Steve Dunham, the communications director for the Washington County School District, told KSL the school took the accusations very seriously, but later learned there was more to the story.

“The administration at the school took action,” Dunham said. “They thought they had resolved issues and really thought they had taken care of things.”

School officials say one of the fathers of a cheerleader who was removed from the team following the incident threatened to release the full video unless his daughter was reinstated. The administration said it did not know that video existed.

“We felt like there was a need to revisit the initial investigation,” Dunham told KSL.com. “They copied and they are distributing copies of the videos throughout the community. These videos contain a semi-nude juvenile female and that’s not appropriate.”

District officials reported what happened to St. George Police. So far, no one faces charges because no victims came forward.

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