Author: Hank Nuwer

This was written by Conlan Campbell, 18, for the St. Olaf student newspaper.

Excerpt:

High school freshmen, as a general group, are impressionable. Because of their malleable minds, it is not a huge leap to assume these students, who are fourteen or fifteen years old, are taking in their environment as they formulate a paradigm through which to view the broader world. This process is something lauded in terms of high school sports: kids are offered a small, tight-knit community to build confidence and understand how to operate in a group. The issue in Sayreville is that the football team is not a safe place for freshmen to formulate worldviews. It is where the older and more powerful are free to bully and subjugate their younger teammates, while the community looks on with ambivalence, or even worse, contempt.

Reports of hazing among the freshmen on the Sayreville football team include being held down while upperclassmen violently attack them, and being subjected to a very disconcerting, possibly sexually-charged “fondling,” where individuals were purportedly penetrated through pants with a finger. A system that allows this kind of treatment is broken. Compounding the issue, the students being bullied are seemingly encouraged to justify the beatings and the “ass-taking,” as the students call it. Investigators had difficulty ascertaining an accurate conception of events because accounts were skewed among different students. Many who experienced the hazing were willing to say that it was just a joke, or that the upperclassmen were simply messing around, while few were willing to state that they had a problem with it. These results aren’t hard to believe with the controversy regarding the case in the surrounding community and with the cancellation of football for the year, for which the freshmen are being blamed.

This case illuminates the public response to this clearly damaged football-playing subgroup. The public only sees the team when it wins games. The high schoolers enjoy seeing their points rack up and putting a little statue into a case, or perhaps hanging a banner on the wall of the gym. When they meet students from other schools, they can compare their home teams, and having the better record is a little bit exciting. Maybe these students, their families and others in the community start to become prideful and like to go cheer on the team with a two-dollar hot chocolate in hand. Then, once football is part of the local identity, the 15-year-olds joining the team aren’t just impressionable teenagers; they are a deciding factor as to whether all the football players get to proudly parade around the homecoming assembly instead of just sitting in the bleachers.

– See more at: http://manitoumessenger.com/opinions/2014/11/07/football-hazing-reveals-vicious-learning-cycle/#sthash.CaiBw8oi.dpuf

Moderator: By obfuscation and refusing to let the local community know the facts, the public has concluded the Hughson High School football hazing scandal is so much worse than it was.

So what did happen?  Beats me. The school’s administration still is talking with both hands covering the mouth. The Stanislaus County police have been equally uncooperative with Fox 40 media.

We do know Coach George Harp was missing from the sideline for last night’s game against Ripon High School.

Moderator:  This is a really well-thought-out essay. 

Excerpt: It goes beyond how hard we fought for our letters. It’s not the potential loss of authenticity/exclusivity that bothers us. It has to deal with more than the legacies of great leadership that we were built upon. Somehow, silently, Black society has allowed our most organic, collectively progressive and influential group of African American organizations to become taboo to criticize.  Even more insane is the idea that public conversations, which surround BGLOs, only happen when Divine Nine organizations are being criticized about cases of pledging and hazing. While I understand the emotional response of members who are upset at the “Tiny” misunderstanding, I also feel that the Divine Nine’s ability to grow its mission is heavily contingent on our ability to examine ourselves outside of the lens of entertainment and positively construct better representations of our culture. It’s a challenge I have personally adopted as an independent filmmaker trying to tell positive stories about our organizations. Sometimes I feel like Chris Rock when he said that he loves Hip-Hop music, but he’s tired of defending it. I love Black Greeks, but sometimes it’s hard to defend some things we do.  I could not defend someone who thinks that an appropriate response to Tiny’s hand gestures should be some type of punishment or verbal “checking.” It’s juvenile and extremely ironic when we consider that more and more the disrespect of our image is coming from members within our own Greek communities. – See more at: http://madamenoire.com/487199/a-tiny-misunderstanding-should-black-greeks-be-mad-at-tameka-harris/#sthash.7bqjfKX6.dpuf

Here is the link

Moderator:  There were minor injuries accompanying the hazing activities.

The Modesto Bee says that severe hazing at Hughson High involved the football team.

Excerpt

Stanislaus County sheriff’s Lt. Keith Rakoncza confirmed that his department is investigating an incident “at the high school involving students.”

“We are not releasing any information on the case at this time,” Rakoncza said in an email.

It is unclear when the incident occurred or how many students were involved. However, Huskies head coach George Harp has been placed on administrative leave, according to sources.

Harp would not confirm that Tuesday afternoon but said he was not on the sideline Friday when Hughson played Riverbank.

“I would rather not comment on anything at this time,” said Harp, a physical education teacher at Emilie J. Ross Middle School in Hughson and a graduate of Hughson High.