Ah, the beginning of the school year! A time of such joy for all! New clothes, new supplies, new classes, new people to meet and greet and get raped by!
Reports only from the months of August and September:
School District in Hazing Case Draws Anger From Parents (NY Times, September 18, 2003, registration required): The football season is lost at Mepham High School, but the parents of players are not blaming their children or the three seniors who are suspected of sexually abusing their freshman teammates. Instead, many are focusing their anger squarely on the school district. [...] In interviews today, parents said the Board of Education merely hurt innocent children when it voted unanimously on Wednesday to cancel the Mepham Pirates' varsity and junior-varsity football seasons. The board blamed the players for not reporting the allegations and for putting up a shield of silence, but parents said their children felt threatened because the suspects had continued to attend school. "How can you let a threat walk around school when you're asking these kids to give you information?" said Todd Frenchman, a parent of a football player. "They're not going to testify or give any kind of comment. They're not silent. They're scared."
2 Teens Attacked 3 Separate Times At Camp (NY Newsday, September 16, 2003): Two of the Mepham High School football players allegedly sexually assaulted by older teammates at a weeklong training camp were attacked three separate times during the trip, with one suffering injuries serious enough to require surgery, a source close to one victim said yesterday. A third boy was attacked once, when he happened to pass by a bunk during one of the brutal hazing rites, the source said. [...] The victims told their parents only after one of them continued bleeding several days after the attacks. The victims' parents reported the incidents to school officials and the Pennsylvania state police, who are conducting separate investigations into the allegations. Several varsity players said last week that word of the attacks spread quickly through the camp, but no one told their coaches. The players said they thought they could handle it themselves by changing some players' bunk assignments on their own.
School punished after allegations of sex-assault hazing (CNN, September 18, 2003): A Long Island school board has voted to end a high school football team's season amid allegations that some players were sexually assaulted by older teammates at a training camp. The Bellmore-Merrick school board decided at a Wednesday night closed-door meeting to cancel all of the Mepham High School football team's games, Newsday reported in Thursday editions. Three varsity players, ages 15, 16 and 17, allegedly sodomized three junior varsity players with a broomstick, pine cones and golf balls while other players watched, the newspaper reported.
Ten Frat Members Face Trial For Hazing Death (WSTM-TV, September 22, 2003): (Plattsburgh-AP) -- Ten members of an upstate New York fraternity face a November trial for the alleged hazing death of an 18-year-old pledge. Walter Dean Jennings of Gansevoort in Saratoga County died of water intoxication last March 12th during the last day of a ten-day pledge cycle. Members of the banned Plattsburgh State College fraternity allegedly forced Jennings to drink large amounts of water, sometimes through a funnel.
University of Maryland Suspends Athletes In Hazing Incident (WJZ, September 16, 2003): Athletes on the men's and women's lacrosse teams at the University of Maryland are facing some stiff penalties after an investigation into alleged hazing and under age drinking. The Athletic Department has decided to suspend some players for the entire fall season, while others will have to sit out for half of fall play. Still other students will not be allowed to attend a planned lacrosse trip in the spring. University representatives say the number of students on suspension will make participating in fall games difficult. The punishments are a result of an investigation into under age drinking. Evidence of hazing, which is an extremely serious offense, will be turned over to the campus Office of Judicial Affairs.
Police probe hazing attacks (Calgary Herald, September 22, 2003): Calgary police and school officials are investigating several high school hazing rituals occurring during the first week of class -- including reports of teens swarming younger students, pinning them down and "paddling" them repeatedly with boards, sticks and cricket bats. Other incidents of "froshing," or Grade 10 initiation, under investigation include threats, egg tossing, fights with boxing gloves and spraying bleach-filled water pistols or balloons at students -- some of these leading to dozens of school suspensions and community service sanctions. The instances, police say, typically involve Grade 11 and 12 students targeting Grade 10s and are happening in close to a quarter of Calgary high schools.
7 football players charged in hazing incident (Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 7, 2003): Seven Bellefontaine High School football players are facing criminal charges after a fellow player was injured during a hazing incident. Six players, all 17 years old when the incident occurred, were charged with delinquency counts of complicity to unlawful restraint. An 18-year-old player was charged as an adult with complicity to unlawful restraint. Police said the players are accused of trying to tape sophomore Zack Keller to a bench in the locker room after practice Aug. 14. Keller's hand was injured when he grabbed the metal mesh of an open locker and players tried to break his grip. Tendons in Keller's hand were damaged. He is unable to play for the rest of the season.
Hazing Incident Under Review (KAMR NBC4, Amarillo, August 26, 2003): AMARILLO -- A local high school student is in the hospital with major internal injuries after a possible hazing incident. He's a freshman wrestler at Palo Duro High School. Amarillo Independent School District officials say he will be okay, but the situation is being fully investigated.
Rye Cove High hazing suspects to be suspended (Kingsport Times-News, August 13, 2003): RYE COVE - Four students accused of hazing two fellow football players will not be allowed back on the Rye Cove High School campus in the immediate future, according to statements released Wednesday. Information provided by Scott County Superintendent of Schools Jim Scott states Rye Cove principal Marjorie Blalock has recommended that the four students "receive out-of-school suspension and alternative placement'' as of Aug. 15, the first day of school for students. [...] The four teenagers, ranging in age from 16 to 18, have been arrested and charged with hazing two 13-year-old students during a voluntary weight training session on June 13 where the two younger students were allegedly penetrated with a wooden handle smeared with an antiseptic cream. [...] Two of the three juveniles were charged with one count each of inanimate object penetration, conspiracy and hazing. The other juvenile also faces hazing and conspiracy charges along with two counts of inanimate object penetration. [The adult, Robert Benjamin "Benny" Elliott, 18] is charged with one count of inanimate object penetration, conspiracy to commit a felony, and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Here are the questions I would dearly love to ask some of these people:
What on this earth has EVER made them think that it is right and proper to rape their teammates?
What on this earth has EVER made them think that it is right and proper to physically assault someone?
The plain fact is, as a recent Newsday editorial points out, these are exactly the same sorts of activities that have recently gotten police convicted on various sexual assault and battery charges. (Unfortunately, I cannot link to the editorial because they've got some seriously rogue Flash applet connected to that one page.) Do they think they're invulnerable to these charges because they're young?
They may think they're invulnerable because this is supposed to bind them together, both the physical act, and keeping the secret. Supposedly, the combination of the sexual nature of the rite and keeping that secret contributes to the bond between members of the group.
What puzzles me is this: why would you want to bond to someone who had raped and/or beaten you? Why would you want to bond to someone who would stoop to shoving a pine cone up your butt? Why would you want to bond with someone who had shoved your head into a toilet? In short, why on earth would you want to be a member of any group that would do something like that to you or anyone else? What would make it worthwhile?
The Mepham high school incident in the first two linked pieces had an interesting result. Students protested the cancellation of their football season, feeling that it was unjust to punish everyone for the sins of a few. Thing is, it seems fairly obvious that most of the teams knew about what had happened; how could they not? (I'll grant you that the cheerleaders probably hadn't heard a word about it; they alone seem to be suffering unintended fallout.) In fact, one of the NY Newsday articles linked above specifically notes that the news spread throughout the camp, and the players tried to cope with it by moving victims away from their rapists. So they not only knew about the attack, but knew that it was wrong, and did something to try to prevent further attacks. Even granting that teenagers don't want to tell adults anything, even granting that part of the idea behind this mess is to show that you can take torture and stay in the club ... even granting all that, you would think that after two people had been attacked multiple times, after one of them was bleeding so much that it wouldn't stop ... you'd think that one of them would have gotten a clue and told someone. So they're not being punished for what the others did. They're being punished for what they didn't do. They're being punished because they knew, and said nothing. And somehow, these students seem to think that they're the ones who have been ill-treated, that they're suffering more because they can't play football, or cheer on their football heroes. Somehow, they don't see that this protest essentially appears as though they're asserting their rights to have their players sexually assault each other and then keep it secret, and benefit thereby.
Their parents aren't helping the issue. According to the various NY Newsday articles linked above, the police and school authorities are meeting with a signal lack of cooperation from either students or parents. Understandable, that; who wants to be responsible for sending their child to jail? Nonetheless, it does send a message: Close ranks. Protect each other. It doesn't matter what you did wrong; that's not the most important thing.
The students and their parents all need to grow up.
Frankly, it will be interesting to see what happens with this case. The laws that were violated were Pennsylvania's -- that's where the camp was located -- but the students are all New York residents. (Which explains why NY newspapers seem to be saturated with this coverage, but there's not a peep out of Pennsylvania.) The crossjurisdictional issue may make it difficult for legal charges to go anywhere; Pennsylvania may feel that this isn't the sort of case that constitutes extraditable offenses, and New York lacks jurisdiction to prosecute, because the crimes didn't occur there.
Posted by iain at September 22, 2003 01:49 PMComments
