Friday, July 24, 1998 BANISHED CADET TO RETURN TO VMI THIS FALL WITH THE 35 OTHER WOMEN ENROLLED IN INSTITUTE'S SECOND COED CLASS By MATT CHITTUM ROANOKE TIMES Among the 35 women who will take on the rigors of the Virginia Military Institute this fall is Angelica Garza, the woman who left VMI's first coed class early last year for slugging the sergeant of the guard. Garza said at the time of her one-year suspension that she would take another crack at the ratline this fall. "She's good to her word. I'll give her that," said VMI spokesman Mike Strickler. "I'm sure there were people that kind of raised their eyebrows and said they'd heard that before, and, `We'll believe it when we see it.''' Garza, from Lorton, created the first and most surprising stir of VMI's maiden year of coeducation when she struck the upperclassman. She was suspended Sept. 20, just three weeks after she arrived. During her second week at VMI, Garza was being harangued by a second-classman, or junior, sources at VMI said at the time. Cadets call this practice - yelling at freshman rats and ordering them to do push-ups - "flaming." Garza apparently acted disrespectfully to the upperclassman, who decided to escort her to the guard room to report her. Before they got inside, Garza took a swing at the cadet, who ducked, leaving the sergeant of the guard to take the pop in the head. Garza and her family could not be reached for comment. Strickler said Garza is showing the kind of "determination and perseverance" that VMI looks for in its cadets, but he acknowledged the second time around may be harder than the first for Garza. In the ratline, freshman "rats" learn to avoid drawing attention to themselves, lest they become the object of more harassment from upperclassmen. Unfortunately for Garza, her reputation precedes her. "She will not have a low profile," Strickler acknowledged. How the cadets treat her is going to be "interesting," he said. "I really don't know how they'll react. There might be some that will single her out. Certainly they will know who she is." Garza will be joined by 34 other women in the second coed class to enter VMI. The women include 14 Virginians, mostly from Northern Virginia and the Richmond and Tidewater areas, Strickler said. None are from the Roanoke Valley. Four are from California, with others coming from as far away as Kenya, Taiwan and Romania. All but one of the 22 women who completed the ratline last year will be returning, Strickler said. One has been suspended for a semester for having too many demerits. They'll have the opportunity to inflict some sanctioned abuse on Garza, their former classmate. But Strickler is hopeful for Garza. "I think she'll make it," he said.