Members of Penn’s women’s lacrosse team allegedly engaged in “absolutely deplorable behavior” on Saturday night at Fado Irish Pub in Center City.
The bar’s general manager, Casey Neff, sent an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian , women’s lacrosse coach Karin Brower Corbett and Penn’s Athletic Department , among others, claiming that a group of 50 people under the lacrosse team’s reservation did considerable damage to his business.
The incident is currently under investigation by Penn’s Athletic Department.
The event was a pre-planned party hosted by the Penn women’s lacrosse team scheduled from 9-11 p.m., Neff said, although he added that the group stayed much later.
In the email, the bar owner complained that the team members intentionally broke facilities such as a light fixture which caused a “broken glass hazard.” The students also allegedly stole a bottle of liquor from the bar and attempted to steal a six-pack of beer. Neff claimed that the lacrosse players also smoked marijuana in the bathroom and exposed a young woman’s genitals to the “adulation of the rest of the party.” They also allegedly tipped less than 4 percent on the $1,300 tab.
“We want people to have fun. We are happy that people come out,” Neff said. “But that was well above and beyond [the standard] of normal behavior.
“They broke the light fixture, and they literally cheered about it — ‘yeah!’ — are you kidding?”
Neff has not filed a police report and does not plan to do so. “We don’t know any individual who broke anything, it was a group. We were not able to single out anyone,” he said. However, Neff is asking the University to help compensate for the damage to the bar.
Neff said that the team members’ behavior represented “patterns of behavior with [Penn] groups over several years.” Student groups affiliated with Wharton have already been banned from making reservations at Fado, due to incidents such as students using cocaine in the bathrooms, having sex in the janitor’s closet and urinating on the bar.
The most recent incident forced the pub’s managers to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss their future policy on taking reservations from Penn groups.
“We will assess reservations case by case and do a thorough job finding out what the event is for,” he said. “It would be unfair to exclude [students from one university] based on the actions of a few.”
“I know of several students that are regulars and not only behave well, but are some of our favorite customers,” he said in the email.
Neff said that an officer from the Division of Public Safety contacted him yesterday about the incident. DPS deferred comment to Associate Vice Provost for University Life Hikaru Kozuma.
Upon notification of the incident, Penn Athletic Communications Director Mike Mahoney issued a statement that said, “We have been made aware of the allegations by Fado, and we are deeply concerned about them. Our coaches and senior staff are meeting with the members of the women’s lacrosse team, and we will continue to thoroughly investigate the allegations around this event. If the description of incidents around this event is accurate and found to involve our team and their guests, this was deplorable behavior that will not be tolerated.”
No coaches or players were available for comment.
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