Coach Charles Zascavage was free of all charges in hazing case. Trials of Justin Everett, 18, three counts of assault with bodily injury and four counts of hazing, and Cory Talbert, 17, one count of hazing, remain to be settled in the courts. Read the story with photo here.
Author: Hank Nuwer
Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.
He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com
Here are links to the major hazing cases recently in the news:
Football: Donna High School — Star quarterback charged.
Football: Digital penetration called “horseplay” that has gone on for decades: Tennessee
Basketball camp: North Carolina lawsuit goes aheadÂ
Link here for some stories on St. Paul’s and female hazing, including simulation of an act.
This Tennessee judge also opted for a light sentencing in a severe hazing. See story.
Moderator: FYI. Winslow, AZ high school basketball players were sent to jail for up
to 9 months in a sexual hazing five years ago. The victim was white. The hazers were minorities. Now read this commentary.
Background on the 2000 case:
2000
Winslow High School (Arizona)
Sexual hazing alleged (basketball/track)
Members of a girl’s athletic squad charged that they saw evidence of male athletes being
inappropriately mishandled with fingers and objects. Basketball coach Daniel Gonzalez was
indicted on three felony counts of child abuse. The case is sad, involving students who were
regarded as top student athletes in the hazing. One star, an African American, was sentenced to 9 months in jail. He later lost his scholarship to Northern Azrizona University but made the team as a walk-on. ABC covered the case, and (disclosure) this moderator followed it for CNN and ABC.