By MATT CHITTUM
THE ROANOKE TIMES

A freshman "rat" at Virginia Military Institute was left bloody and bruised by five of his "brother rats" who entered his room on a nighttime raid Friday.

He was lying on his bed about 4 a.m. Friday when the other rats entered his room, rolled him up in his mattress and punched him repeatedly about the face, head and shoulders, VMI spokesman Mike Strickler said. The commandant's office and the cadet Officer of the Guard Association, which investigates cadet disciplinary violations, are looking into the beating, Strickler said.

Superintendent Josiah Bunting III told the commandant he expected a report and recommendation by Monday afternoon.

The penalty for striking another cadet at VMI is dismissal.

Lexington / Rockbridge County Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Saunders has also been notified, Strickler said.

The victim went first to the VMI post hospital with the help of his roommate, and was sent to Stonewall Jackson Hospital as a precautionary measure. He suffered cuts and bruises and has been approved to return to duty, but remained in the VMI hospital resting up Friday evening, Strickler said.

The victim's name is Theodore P. Frances.

The attack was similar to a common element of VMI barracks horseplay called "balling up," in which cadets roll a superior officer up in his mattress and poke fun at him. It's often done on a cadet's birthday.

The only similar incident to Friday's beating that Strickler could think of occurred in April 1996. Several cadets entered the room of a classmate who was excused from "ratline" training activities on doctor's orders and overturned his bed. They attempted to shave his head and tried to spray burning analgesic balm on his genitals but got it on his leg instead. In the process, his shoulder was dislocated.

Six cadets were suspended for that incident, and nine others received lesser penalties.

"This kind of stuff just goes contrary to what we believe at VMI, and the 'brother rat' spirit," Strickler said. "They've done something wrong, and those who have done it will pay the price."