Corry area seniors charged with violent hazing
CORRY (AP) – Fourteen boys who will be seniors at Corry Area High School this year beat 15 incoming freshmen with brass knuckles, golf club handles and homemade paddles, police said.
Corry police said the hazing is a tradition, and that some of those charged say they were similarly beaten four years ago.
“It’s apparently been escalating over the years, and now it’s a competition to see which members of the senior class can use the most elaborate weapon to inflict the most pain,†police Cpl. Tommy Beebe said.
The seniors, all of whom are under 18, were not being identified because they were charges as juveniles, police said.
Eight of the boys must answer charges of criminal conspiracy, simple assault and possessing instruments of crime. The other six face lesser summary charges of conspiracy and harassment.
School officials said they have not decided whether to discipline any of the seniors for the alleged beatings, which occurred off school grounds.
Police said they began investigating after parents began calling June 12, the day after school let out, to complain about the beatings.
Police said the beatings mirror those portrayed in “Dazed and Confused,†a 1993 teen movie in which upperclassmen chase down incoming freshman on the last day of school and beat them with paddles.
