>> Not just beer bongs and wedgies; recent hazing take practice to extreme
If you look the word 'hazing' up in the dictionary, you'll come up with a definition that reads "to initiate, as into a college fraternity, by exacting humiliating performances from or playing rough practical jokes upon."
What happened earlier this school year to three members of the Mepham High School football team in New York goes beyond the extent of humiliating performances.
These young men, junior varsity players, were allegedly attacked by three older players, ages 15, 16 and 17, at a preseason football camp in Pennsylvania where about 60 players and five coaches spent a week in training.
What some people have tried to dismiss as hazing included attacks so violent that the men were sodomized by broomsticks, golf balls and pine cones. One of the victims was still bleeding days later, requiring surgery after the attack.
Sadly, little attention was given to the incident until press got wind of the story weeks later. Newsday reported earlier this month that school officials and players said the coaches did not know about the incident until the parents of one of the victims reported it to the principal after the boys returned from camp.
No arrests have been made in the case, and no comments have been made from prosecutors and school officials as to the specifics of the allegations. The school board, however, has decided to cancel all of the team's football games for the rest of the season.
Instead of accepting the punishment for the terrible act, members of the team threw a pep rally-type protest on the school's football field, complete with a pickup game and cheerleaders chanting support from the sidelines.
Does this picture disturb anyone else besides me? I can't seem to understand how these students can throw such a gleeful protest when they clearly deserve harsher punishment for the acts they committed off the football field.
Unfortunately, authorities have said both the players and their families refuse to give information about the assaults, reportedly witnessed by several dozen players. For whatever reason, perhaps out of fear, these young men have chosen to protect each other, and I think it's sick.
Apparently, we have entered a day and age where hazing pranks know no boundaries. From the videotaped events that took place earlier this year featuring a group of Illinois high school girls covering younger girls in mud, paint, feces and garbage to this most recent case of violent sodomy, there is no limit to the level of brutality these students are willing to commit.
And while these pranks may have happened to high schoolers, let's not fool ourselves into believing that similar hazing rituals don't take place at the college level.
I'm not pointing fingers at any organization here on campus, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were students right now pledging groups or participating in activities where some sort of hazing was involved.
To the individuals who should happen to find themselves being forced to participate in activities they do not wish to be involved in -- be it excessive drinking, performance of embarrassing stunts or the endurance of physical abuse -- stand up for yourselves.
It's time you learned that being accepted doesn't require taking abuse from anyone else.
Write to Gail at glkoch@bsu.edu
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