Associated Press
ROSWELL The New Mexico Military Institute has suspended two cadets for hazing first-year students in a ritual dubbed "blood bars."
NMMI public information officer Carl Hansen says the school will not reveal the identities of the cadets who were suspended Friday and Wednesday.
Hansen says last week's hazing centers around metal pins signifying a student's status as a yearling.
The Roswell Daily Record reports the bar-shaped pins, about an inch long with two sharp metal prongs, are pushed into the skin of a cadet's chest.
The pins are then slapped and twisted. Hansen says it is not uncommon for as many as five older cadets to take turns striking the pin.
NMMI's commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. Richard Geraci, says the school won't tolerate hazing.