Gang Busters

The three boys didn't show up at their San Antonio high school that Monday. Their explanation: a few nights before they had been so severely paddled at a high-school fraternity initiation that they had been under a doctor's care.

To most San Antonio teenagers, there was nothing so strange about that. But Lawyer Gus Garcia, newest member of the school board, was shocked. He decided to find out just what sort of fraternities and sororities San Antonio had.

Egg Coiffure. He began interviewing teachers and students, principals and athletic coaches. In their consensus, San Antonio's 26 fraternities and sororities were a good deal worse than a nuisance. "They have ceased to be social groups," one principal told him. "They have become gangs." The kids' societies were going in for lavish parties in downtown hotels. Some of them cost as much as $25 a head. One boy had been nabbed for stealing a watch. His reason: to get some money to pay his dance assessment.

Teachers complained of absenteeism after all-night initiations. Parents were fed up with having their daughters come home with egg in their hair. Principal T. Guy Rogers of the Thomas Jefferson High School had another complaint: "We have had athletes who are not willing to play with non-fraternity boys." Other principals complained of snobbery: most fraternities wouldn't take in Mexican-American students.

Last week the San Antonio school board met, announced that it had decided to ban all fraternities and sororities. Fraternity supporters hooted and howled when Garcia tried to make a speech. Some parents joined in. "Several years ago," screamed one mother, "boys died to preserve the ideals you are treading on." Cried one fraternity brother: "Do you want us to roam the streets and become juvenile delinquents?"

Take the Pledge. The board was unmoved either by tears or jeers. Henceforth, it voted, all high-school students will sign a pledge against joining a fraternity or sorority. If they refuse, they will still be able to attend classes, but they will be barred from all extracurricular activities. A few days later, the San Antonio Express denounced the ban as violating "the rights of privacy and assembly." Violation or not, San Antonio's school board was not alone last week. Other large Texas cities that have decreed similar bans: Dallas and Houston.

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