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Foothill High School (Calif.) hazing called an obscene act. Why no criminal investigation?

All: here is another case that the school alone is investigating.
Details of what occurred are absent.

Foothill High School is coming down hard on hazing. Six football players from the freshman-sophomore football team were suspended following reports of locker room bullying.

“Basically it was an obscene act being performed on other players,” said Brenda Lewis, Foothill High School’s principal. “And it was said after the act a few times, ‘now you are part of the team.'”

That obscene act involved players simulating sex. School officials said it happened to players several times until one  reported it to the coaching staff.

“We support students and students should not be afraid to speak up if they feel they were bullied or intimidated in any kind of way,” Lewis said.

School officials said they investigated the incident and suspended the students involved for three days. Those students have also been kicked off the football team for the rest of the season.

Varsity football team members said their younger teammates were acting immaturely.

“As guys, you know, we do play around in the locker room and stuff, but that can get carried away sometimes,” said varsity kicker Thomas Contreras. “You really got to know when to stop and when it’s not right.”

“It wasn’t a smart move for the freshman to do that but they are immature and soon enough they will get to know that that’s not the right thing to do,” said Ryan Rangle, also a varsity kicker.

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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