Five senior girls at St. Paul's School were suspended for a term and 10 others were suspended for two weeks after hazing 12 new students in two dormitories, according to an employee of St. Paul's who asked not to be named.

The seniors woke the new girls up in the middle of the night, forcing them to simulate oral sex with bananas and answer sexually explicit questions, the employee said. St. Paul's determined the hazing was more severe in one of the dorms, Kittredge II, where five of the senior girls lived, than the other dorm, Ford.

In an e-mail to parents yesterday, Bishop Craig Anderson said the students' punishment fit the school's zero-tolerance policy toward hazing.

"Because there were gradations between the two houses involved, the punishments differed to reflect these gradations," the rector wrote. The school would not explicitly confirm it had suspended the 15 students, but it announced the punishments in chapel yesterday morning.

The girls from Kittredge II left the school on Friday and will return after Thanksgiving, and the seniors from Ford left Saturday, according to the school employee. None of the girls will be allowed to return to school during her suspension.

"These kids were wonderful kids who made a mistake here," Dean of Students Doug Dickson said. "No one was hurt. We think we're handling this situation in a sensitive way to protect these kids."

None of the parents of the five girls who were suspended for a term wanted to talk about the incident.

Seniors arrived at St. Paul's on Sept. 9, and new students arrived the next day. The hazing occurred at some point over the weekend, before the other students arrived. St. Paul's started classes on Monday, Sept. 13.

The hazing has prompted a flurry of e-mails on the school's alumni Yahoo newsgroup, where alums have debated whether hazing occurred in their eras and asked whether having mixed-grade dorms contributed to the problem.

Isolated incidents of hazing have occurred at St. Paul's before, according to Dickson, and the school has handled other hazing cases like it has handled this one.

St. Paul's reported the hazing to the Concord Police Department last week in accordance with state law, and the police are investigating. Hazing has been considered a crime in New Hampshire since 1993.

The St. Paul's employee said colleges would be told about the students' suspensions and the reason for them.

(Anne Ruderman can be reached at 224-5301, ext. 316, or by e-mail at aruderman@cmonitor.com.)

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By ANNE RUDERMAN

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