Sex With a Scorecard

By Jill Smolowe

Tami Cowger first heard about the exploits of the Spur Posse when she was . approached last December by a distraught ninth grader. "She had met this boy and really liked him, so she had sex with him. Then he brought his friends over and said she had to have sex with them too. She didn't want to, but she figured maybe this is what you have to do to be popular in high school." So the girl submitted, recalls Cowger, 17, a peer counselor at the high school in Lakewood, California. She sympathized with the younger girl's dilemma: "These were the popular guys."

Those popular guys now find themselves in the middle of an uproar over teenage values that has spread beyond the conservative, middle-class Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood. While denying charges ranging from sexual molestation to rape, the group of 20 to 30 youths has proudly owned up to a competition in which they scored points each time they had a sexual conquest. Their seeming lack of regard for the girls they were scoring upon shocked many Lakewood residents, as did the widespread perception of the boys as heroes and the girls as troublemakers. The debate set men against women and students against each other as everyone tried to draw the lines between teenage libidos, rampant promiscuity and the victimization of women.

The town of 74,000 learned about the accusations on March 18 after seven girls filed complaints against members of the Spur Posse, named in honor of their basketball heroes, the San Antonio Spurs. Sheriff's deputies arrested eight boys and one young man on more than 17 felony counts of rape, unlawful intercourse and related charges. Last week county prosecutors said charges would be filed against only one of the boys for allegedly having sex with a 10-year-old girl. The other eight youths were set free. While four of them remained under investigation, many townspeople felt justice had been shortchanged. "There is a sense of outrage about the charges being dropped," said Julie Dodge of the Sexual Assault Crisis Agency in nearby Long Beach.

Posse members described their exploits with bravado. Founding member Dana Belman, 20, explained that members received a point each time they achieved orgasm with a different girl and boasted that he had scored 63 points. Billy Shehan, 19, bragged that he was the highest scorer, with 66 points. "My parents were a little surprised," he said. "They thought it was more like 50." Shehan said that while many of the boys did not use condoms when intercourse was involved, he did. "I buy them by the boxload," he explained.

Some of the boys' parents seemed unperturbed. At the Belman home, where son Kristopher, 18, had returned after being released from custody, father Donald said, "Nothing my boy did was anything any red-blooded American boy wouldn't do at his age." Billy Shehan's father Billy Sr. offered a historical perspective. "I'm 40. We used to talk about scoring in my high school," he said. "What's the difference?" Son Billy, who was not among those arrested, was irritated only because his folks wouldn't allow him to discuss the controversy on the Jerry Springer show. Beyond that, he saw no cause for remorse. "My dad used to brag to his friends. All the dads did. When we brought home girls they liked, they'd say, 'Cool,' and tell their buddies," he said. "It's all the moms that are freaking out about this stuff. But that's probably that Freudian thing. You know, penis envy."

The boys' moms also reacted defensively, taking swipes at the girls' reputations. Dottie Belman told a reporter, "Those girls are trash." Diane Hurst, whose son was an original Spur, thought it was "sad for the girls that they have such low self-esteem that they would do this." She found no self- esteem problem in her son's behavior. "What can you do?" she said. "It's a testosterone thing."

That casual air of boys-will-be-boys struck many residents as inappropriate, given some of the complaints. One 16-year-old girl told the sheriff's department that a Spur had removed her clothes in a park during a sexual encounter, then refused to give them back until she had sex with other Spurs. She said her clothing was returned only after she screamed. She believes the commotion prevented a gang rape.

Some female students argued that many girls wanted to sleep with these boys. Plainly, Lakewood's teen population is sexually active. According to the local Planned Parenthood office, which serves Lakewood and two other towns, 2,989 teenagers visited its clinic last year. Of those, 547 tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease. Of the 949 girls given pregnancy tests, 385 tested positive.

As the high school barricaded itself against the press last week, Lakewood Mayor Marc Titel feared that the town was "in denial" about the scandal. "What kind of values are we communicating to our kids?" he asked. "There are parents and teachers who are saying, 'This is no big deal.' " For the girls involved, it remains a very big deal. Some of those who complained now endure taunts of "slut." The boys, meanwhile, were cheered when they returned to classes last week. The school is planning several assemblies on date rape and sexual harassment. The first will take place on April 5 -- for girls only.

With reporting by Elaine Lafferty/Los Angeles