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Camp Wishbone (Mass.) incident discussed openly with eye to reform

Link to Fairhaven apology to victim

Excerpt from article follows: FAIRHAVEN — For the first time, school officials have apologized for and talked openly about the way they handled the Camp Wishbone hazing case.
Last Friday, Fairhaven High School Principal Jean Cote convened students by grade in the school’s performing arts center. He talked for about 20 minutes about the incident and the impact it had on the school.
“He said he handled it wrong, (that) he should have handled it better,” said a student who was present at the address but didn’t wish to be identified. “He said he feels bad for the kid that it happened to,” and that the perpetrators and their families should be embarrassed.
Meanwhile, on the same day, Superintendent of Schools Robert N. Baldwin issued a statement on the school’s Web site about the incident in which he praised the victim for coming forward and reflected on the “hard lessons” learned from the case.

By 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 Warsaw, Poland and 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 and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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