Month: May 2011

Excellent editorial follows from the Hutchison News newspaper (Kansas):

What might be perceived as bullying by some could be perceived as youthful horseplay by others. But what matters is how the subject of the activity feels and whether the attention is unwanted.
Bullying is getting much attention now because of some high-profile cases around the country that led to teen suicides. Though long an issue for youngsters, bullying finally is becoming a serious matter, as it should be.
That is why no one should try to make light of the alleged bullying incident at Hutchinson High School last week. Four students are accused of tying up a 14-year-old co-student with a jump rope during in a locker room during a weightlifting class. The four students have been given an undisclosed disciplinary punishment but moreover might be subject to criminal charges.
The students are being investigated for misdemeanor battery and criminal restraint, and the case has been turned over to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office because the victim’s father is a law enforcement officer and thus known to Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder, who normally would determine whether charges are merited.
All this makes this alleged bullying incident sound like a serious matter. And it might be. But comments about the story on HutchNews.com suggest that many people — apparently other students — think it is much ado about nothing, that this was just a bunch of boys horsing around. And the accused students aren’t known to be the bully types by nature.
So, which is it?
That is for none of us on the outside to decide. Instead it starts with the victim. How did he feel about it?
While tying someone up might seem harmless if done as a practical joke among friends, restraint nonetheless can elicit terrifying emotions for the person subjected to it. And he might even laugh and appear to enjoy it as a self-defense mechanism. But the bottom line is, did the subject feel threatened, intimidated or harassed?
A good analogy to bullying may be sexual harassment. There was a time when sexually suggestive banter, body language and touching in the workplace were dismissed as good-natured office fun. Then society realized that wasn’t for the perpetrators of this behavior nor for anyone else but the victim to judge. If someone felt harassed, they were harassed.
Not only do we need to take bullying more seriously, we need to start judging it in a similar fashion.
The trick is in determining punishment, and that is when intent and the character of those involved may be taken into consideration.
By John D. Montgomery/Hutchinson News editorial board

All: I know it isn’t hazing but figured parents and administrators and police might be interested in this potentially dangerous game.

Unit 5 Superintendent Gary Niehaus says Kingsley Junior High staff and Normal Police did all they could in response to an incident at the school which led to a student’s death last year.

Jasmine Brooks filed a lawsuit against Unit 5 and the Town of Normal last week on the one-year anniversary of son Donnie Hampton Jr.’s death.

The lawsuit claims Hampton and other students were playing a game called ‘body shots’ where students punch one another – before he collapsed and later died.

“I think Kingsley staff had done everything they could have done. I don’t know what more they could have done,” Niehaus said.

Niehaus says he reviewed a videotape of the incident and said a teacher responded to the bathroom in a ‘short time frame.’

Niehaus says the district has since added more security cameras to Kingsley and other schools throughout the district.

Click here to listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Niehaus.

From Amazon.com

Product Description

About the Author

David Prantner was born and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature, David and his wife Kati moved to Hong Kong where they both taught english for a year. After that the two moved to Kodiak, Alaska where they have just welcomed the arrival of their new daughter Alyce. Questions for David and his work can be addressed to his e-mail; moose1701@hotmail.com

Here is the story link

excerpt

Every Friday night, a group of Whitman High School swim and dive team members gathers at a friend’s house. Sometimes they play video games, but most nights they eat and watch a movie. It is something the team has been doing for almost 10 years. “When I came to Whitman they were already doing it,” said Geoff Schaefer, now in his ninth season as head coach. “It was definitely a tradition I wanted to continue.”

Schaefer, who said hazing was more the norm in high school when he swam, didn’t want that for his team. “Everyone feels included. We want everyone to be a part of the team,” said Schaefer. That can be difficult when a team is comprised of 70 athletes who are not only competing against each other, but generally spend little time together. With pool time at a premium, the Whitman team only practices twice a week. A majority of the swimmers practice every day, but with club teams. Recognizing the intensity of those workouts, Schaefer lets swimmers miss his practice in lieu of the club practices. Some members of the team may go weeks without practicing with the Whitman team.

That makes the Friday night gatherings all the more important. Without them, the only time the team is together is on the pool deck at meets. Last Friday, a Viking helmet (the team’s mascot) and a box greeted the team at the house of Stephen Rodan, 16, a junior. The box was for donations to cover the cost of dinner from California Tortilla, a team favorite.

Excerpt:

The parliamentary commissioner for the German armed forces confirmed on Tuesday that an army hazing scandal involving young recruits forced to take questionable rites of passage is much more widespread than initally thought.

Rheinhold Robbe this week presented the parliamentary defence committee, the Defence Ministry, and army commanders with 23 letters from soldiers that detail ritual abuse over the last few decades across the different branches of the country’s military.
Initial reports about hazing at the Mittenwald mountain infantry unit in Bavaria emerged in early February after a young man who trained there came forward to describe humiliating rituals during which soldiers were forced to eat raw animal liver until they vomited and nude climbing exercises.

“We can only achieve clarification and improvement for the situation when there’s a start at uncovering what actually happened,” Robbe told broadcaster N24 on Tuesday. “And the goal must be not to just to stop it but prevent it from happening in the future.”

Robbe, who is scheduled to speak to the committee on Wedesday, also acknowledged that the hazing rituals had occurred “everywhere in the Bundeswehr.”

The Bundeswehr has launched an investigation into the Mittenwald matter, which Robbe said had garnered more than 50 additional letters from soldiers who experienced hazing there.

The treatment was supposed to be a rite of passage for soldiers to climb the internal hierarchy within units.

Among other letters describing abuse beyond Mittenwald, one was titled, “Mittenwald is only the tip of the iceberg,” and described how alcohol consumption was “practically ordered” during group social events.

Another letter penned by an enlisted man between 1996 and 1998 at various southern German stations detailed a game called “Jukebox,” during which young soldiers were shut into their footlockers and forced to sing.

Still another soldier who served as a naval officer two decades ago described something he called the “red-arse ritual,” where young recruits had an electric floor polisher applied to their bare backsides until their skin was raw.