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Canada hazer under 18 gets harsh words, lesser penalty from Judge Fred Coward: Lethbridge Herald

Here is the story.

And an excerpt. More go to trial in 2011.

The victims, according to Crown prosecutor Erin Olsen, were asked to choose between a skateboard or a 2-by-4 board as their first instrument of torture. In the process of administering the attack, she said, a co-accused actually cracked the board.
Lethbridge schools have had little success in ending the hazing rituals, court was told – and they have no control of students over the summer, or off their property. Since the attack, Olsen said, some students at the high school have been ostracized for co-operating with police investigation of the assault.
“It’s a very difficult environment for students who spoke to the police,” she said.
Defence lawyer Simon Wood, who argued unsuccessfully for a conditional discharge, told court his client has no prior record, has kept a construction job and continued his Grade 12 classes. The event, he said, was out of character.
He said the accused has also entered guilty pleas on two charges of assault with a weapon, without asking for a trial. While one co-accused has already been sentenced, several more – including several female students – have opted to stand trial later this year.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank 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. 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 new book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer, former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird, finished a stint as managing editor of the Celina Daily Standard to accept a new position as 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.

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