Three senior basketball players from Carmel High School (IN) are being investigated by state officials after being accused of assaulting two freshmen players on the back of a school bus in January.

Five juniors from Glenbrook North High School (IL) were hospitalized in May 2003 after a traditional hazing ritual where senior powderpuff players threw objects at junior players got out of hand.

A sophomore from Trumbull High School (CT) was reportedly tied, slammed into a wall, locked in a gym locker, and sodomized with a plastic knife in February 2000 by up to eight members from the school’s wrestling team.

According to experts, hazing is normally associated with pledges trying get into various fraternities and sororities, a tradition that dates back to the 1800s; but is not normally associated with high school, where it in fact exists heavily throughout the country in various clubs and sports teams. Replace the word ‘pledges’ with the word ‘freshmen’ and the two forms of hazing could be seen as identical. Both can be dangerous, both can be humiliating. Both are growing in numbers.

Most of the hazing that happens in high schools happens out on the field. According to a study published by Alfred University in August 2000, an estimated 800,672 students involved in athletics are hazed across the country each year, more than the 558,767 students involved in a ‘peer group or gang’ are hazed. Many experts believe that hazing occurs most often in sports because the adults in charge often turn the other cheek, writing specific instances off as team bonding.

“Too many coaches, athletic people, and directors think [hazing] is OK because they went through with it when they were younger,” retired University of Vermont Athletic Director Richard Farnham said. “But students tend to think about it in a different way. [They] feel that it makes a team stronger. Most students will say ‘if I go along with it, I’ll be accepted no problem.”

However, despite what most people surrounding the situation say, experts insist that any form of hazing, even if intended to be harmless, is harmful to all of those involved.

“Everyone [involved in hazing] gets hurt,” Professor of Sociology at Morris County Community College and hazing expert Richard Sigal said. “Defendants get hurt, they end up in court, victims get hurt, even coaches or teachers can.”

At the state level, hazing has gained more recognition as a problem, currently there are 44 states with anti-hazing laws in place; however several state’s laws do not include anything related to high school hazing. Missouri’s statues do reference hazing, but only by first defining a ‘educational institution’ as ‘a public or private college or university’ chapter 578 section 360, leaving high schools completely out of the equation. Where they do address colleges, they state that ‘each educational institution in this state shall adopt a written policy prohibiting hazing by any organization operating under the sanction of the institution’ chapter 578 section 363. Leaving all of the power on how to handle cases up to specific schools.

“Making a policy statement isn’t enough,” Farnham said. “You have to define what hazing is and how to handle cases, otherwise ‘zero-tolerance’ won’t mean anything.”

Logan Ponche