High school hazing seems to be the new hot topic of the year. After a few incidents with various sports teams, traditional “freshman initiation,” or hazing, has been noticed. Have high school sports teams taken this what seemed to be harmless initiation too far?
There are different types of hazing and initiation, such as hair cutting, obstacle courses, and other jokes and pranks classified as harmless. Though, these seemingly mild incidents can be embarrassing and humiliating under certain circumstances. At various high schools, parents have been known to get upset, as well as the athlete, when their child has been hazed in any which way.
Sometimes, parents may take a simple joke too far. But when is it the hazing that has gone too far? Is it when someone gets emotionally or physically hurt? Many times harmful hazing happens and is never known. On Espn.com, it states that 80 percent of college athletes have been hazed. They continue that for high school, most incidents go undocumented.
Sometimes, however, the incidents are documented, and we should all learn from these horrible stories. The same ESPN cite, lists several incidents such as one at a football camp in Pennsylvania where one sophomore was allegedly forced to insert his finger into the anus of another sophomore while 20-30 teammates looked on.
Much more recently and close to home, students from our neighboring school Jefferson High School’s wrestling team are accused of urinating on some of the freshmen on the team in the showers while holding them down and assaulting them (as stated in an article on wxyz.com by Cheryl Chodun).
Across the country hazing and initiation happens every day. In high school, hazing should not be allowed. Yet, if a team has a freshman initiation that they want to continue, it should not be secretive anymore, and they should get permission by the school board. Also, students and their parents should sign a waiver that allows them to participate in the initiation.
So, when trying to decide whether or not to haze a new freshman or continue the teams’ tradition of initiation, remember there may be consequences to your actions and you may want to get an okay from an advisor.