Police Find Stripper in Dorm

Several first-year students were taken to the Harvard police station for questioning Monday night after a female stripper under the age of 18 was discovered in their room.

At about 8 p.m. on Monday, Harvard police received a call that an underage stripper had been hired for a Pennypacker party. When the officers arrived at the room, a proctor asked everyone except for the occupants to leave, according to a student eyewitness.

The student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the minor had already started dancing and removing her clothes when the police broke up the party.

After discovering the stripper was a minor, the officers escorted the remaining students to the police station to take statements, Lieutenant Charles Schwab said.

After the questioning, the stripper's parents, who had accompanied the officers to Pennypacker, took their daughter home and no police action was taken against her, Schwab said.

The Freshman Dean's Office (FDO) will begin an inquiry, said David Hackney, the Pennypacker proctor who showed the officers to the room, but will not act until after exam period so that the students involved may concentrate on their finals.

Schwab said Harvard police are still investigating the matter.

No University rule prohibits contracting a stripper to dance in a room, according to Mike Middleton, senior adviser to Thayer and Union dorms.

Hiring a minor to strip is against Massachusetts state law.

According to the first student, the people in the room had no knowledge that the dancer was a minor, because they were assured that the dancer would be in her early 20s by Tele-Tease, the company they called.

A representative of Tele-Tease said the firm does not hire minors and has never experienced any problems concerning the age of their dancers.

The representative, who would only identify himself as Joe, said there was no way he could prevent anyone from lying on the employment application.

"Let me ask you this--the drinking age is twenty-one, right?" he said. "Well, how come college kids can get blitzed every weekend?"

Elie G. Kaunfer contributed to the reporting of this article.