Ameican Notes NAVAL ACADEMY

It started last December with a snowball fight; by last week it had blown into multiple investigations into how women and plebes are treated at the U.S. Naval Academy. After Midshipman Gwen Dreyer hit a male student in the face with a well-aimed snowball, he and some buddies retaliated by handcuffing her to a urinal and photographing her in that humiliating situation. No one, including Dreyer, reported the incident, but when her father complained, Dreyer, who had previously talked of enrolling at Caltech, quit the academy.

In the resulting furor, other abuses came to light: a midshipman had been bound and taped to a chair by classmates who thought he had lied; another had been forced to eat and drink until he vomited. Last week Rear Admiral Virgil Hill, the academy superintendent, announced stricter punishments, including dismissal, for physical "horseplay" involving unwilling participants.

Hill must still contend with investigations by the General Accounting Office, two House Armed Services subcommittees and the Pentagon's Inspector General. The academy has also reconvened the Women Midshipmen Study Group to report on attitudes toward women at Annapolis. It will be the group's third investigation in four years.