Thursday, August 21, 1997 Day dawns on dead rats The prank by Washington and Lee students was not the first By MADELYN ROSENBERG THE ROANOKE TIMES Wednesday morning there were two types of rats at Virginia Military Institute: 456 freshmen, preparing to spend seven months as "the dumbest and lowliest of God's creatures," and 24 dead, white laboratory rats, taken from the Washington and Lee psychology department and piled in front of a television news satellite truck. Above them was a white towel with "Save the Males" scrawled across it in brown magic marker. The prank by Washington and Lee students was not the first between the two schools, which sit adjacent to each other in this historic city. But the timing - when the media spotlight was shining extra bright as 30 women faced their first day on the ratline - prompted W&L; President John Elrod to telephone VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting III with an apology. Elrod "expressed his sorrow for, as he put it, 'this vulgar prank,''' said Brian Shaw, W&L; spokesman. A W&L; student working in the psychology department was responsible Tuesday afternoon for taking 100 dead rats to a nearby Dumpster. The rats were then to be transported by buildings and grounds personnel to the landfill for burial, according to federal regulations. But the student, whose name is not being released, took 24 of those rats in a garbage bag and put them in his car, ostensibly with the intention of playing a prank on another W&L; student who had put a dead rabbit in his mailbox last year, Shaw said. The W&L; student, not wishing to contaminate his own freezer, stored them in a nearby sprawling country house just north of town known as The River House, Shaw said, and later told people about it at a local bar and restaurant, The Staircase. He then went home and went to sleep. Just how the rats made it from The River House to VMI's parade grounds was not known Wednesday evening, but W&L; officials are questioning the students who live in the house. The student who took the rats to the freezer - and the others, if they are caught - may receive disciplinary action when school starts in three weeks, either through the executive committee, which deals with honor violations, or the student judicial council, which deals with student misbehavior. The rats were discovered Wednesday morning about 8:15 by three boys who were on their way to a friend's house. "I thought they were fake," said Jared Short, 10, whose mother works at VMI. Jared, brother Zachary, 12, and friend Rusty Garber, 11, were walking across the grounds to visit Alexander Bush, 10. When they noticed the rats, "we went over to General Bunting's house and rang the doorbell," Jared said. He told the woman who answered to please pass along the message to Bunting, who in turn called police and animal control. The rats were removed from campus soon after. "I think someone has a really sick mind," said a slightly queasy Rusty, whose father, Chip Garber, is defensive coordinator for VMI's football team. None of the boys touched the rats. Bunting said Wednesday morning that the prank "tells you a lot more about the people who would do that than the point they're trying to make." But soon after the dead rats were discovered, it seemed there was no point. "It's just a practical joke," said Larry R. Coffey, a member of the Lexington Police Department.