Romney Apologizes After Reports of Bullying Emerge An in-depth examination of Mitt Romney's teenage years at a prestigious private prep school describes an episode in which he bullied a fellow student and portrays Mr. Romney as a prankster who pushed boundaries. After the report came out, Mr. Romney on Thursday apologized for behavior that might have hurt anyone. The lengthy article in The Washington Post attributes the bullying episode to five former fellow students of Mr. Romney. They say he led a pack of students in tackling another student and cutting off his long blond hair as he screamed for help. Mr. Romney's campaign told The Post that he did not recall the episode involving the student, who The Post said died in 2004. But one of the fellow students called it a "vicious" attack. The account is likely to revive questions about how much of a candidate's background is fair game in an election, given Mr. Romney's age at the time. The episode in question happened almost 50 years ago, and there have been no recent accounts about bullying behavior by Mr. Romney. And it comes in the middle of a national discussion about gay rights in the wake of President Obama's decision to personally endorse same-sex marriage for the first time. The Post report said the student had been taunted for his "nonconformity and presumed homosexuality." Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, told The Post that "anyone who knows Mitt Romney knows that he doesn't have a meanspirited bone in his body. The stories of 50 years ago seem exaggerated and off base and Governor Romney has no memory of participating in these incidents. Asked about the episodes during a radio interview on Thursday morning, Mr. Romney apologized. "Back in high school, I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that," Mr. Romney told Brian Kilmeade, a radio host. Mr. Romney added that: "I participated in a lot of high jinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize." But Mr. Romney added that he did not recall the episode described in the paper and said that whatever happened was not fueled by antipathy toward the student because of his sexual orientation. I don't remember that incident. I certainly don't believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual," Mr. Romney said. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s so that was not the case. The Post article also describes another episode in which Mr. Romney was accused of mistreating a mostly blind teacher at the prestigious Michigan institution called Cranbrook School. In that episode, students recalled that Mr. Romney purposely guided the blind teacher, known affectionately as "the Bat," into a closed door. "Romney giggled hysterically as the teacher shrugged it off as another of life's indignities," The Post wrote. The story also quotes fellow students - including former girlfriends - who described Mr. Romney as a hard worker and a leader at the elite school, which catered to the sons and daughters of Michigan's wealthy elite. The story paints a detailed portrait of the school as having a kind of Hogwarts grandeur. In the chandeliered dining room, students waited on fellow students and sat on straight-backed spindle chairs bearing the school's insignia of a proud crane. After dinner, they wiped their mouths with cloth napkins," The Post wrote. But the most searing images were of Mr. Romney's treatment of John Lauber, who The Post said came out to his family and close friends as gay later in life after being expelled from Cranbrook. The Post cited five former students - four by name, including Matthew Friedemann, described as a "a close friend" of Mr. Romney "in the Stevens Hall dorm" - who said they witnessed Mr. Romney "marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber's hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors. The Post wrote: "It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me," said Thomas Buford, the school's wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was "terrified," he said. What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.