Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

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Every Friday night, a group of Whitman High School swim and dive team members gathers at a friend’s house. Sometimes they play video games, but most nights they eat and watch a movie. It is something the team has been doing for almost 10 years. “When I came to Whitman they were already doing it,” said Geoff Schaefer, now in his ninth season as head coach. “It was definitely a tradition I wanted to continue.”

Schaefer, who said hazing was more the norm in high school when he swam, didn’t want that for his team. “Everyone feels included. We want everyone to be a part of the team,” said Schaefer. That can be difficult when a team is comprised of 70 athletes who are not only competing against each other, but generally spend little time together. With pool time at a premium, the Whitman team only practices twice a week. A majority of the swimmers practice every day, but with club teams. Recognizing the intensity of those workouts, Schaefer lets swimmers miss his practice in lieu of the club practices. Some members of the team may go weeks without practicing with the Whitman team.

That makes the Friday night gatherings all the more important. Without them, the only time the team is together is on the pool deck at meets. Last Friday, a Viking helmet (the team’s mascot) and a box greeted the team at the house of Stephen Rodan, 16, a junior. The box was for donations to cover the cost of dinner from California Tortilla, a team favorite.

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The parliamentary commissioner for the German armed forces confirmed on Tuesday that an army hazing scandal involving young recruits forced to take questionable rites of passage is much more widespread than initally thought.

Rheinhold Robbe this week presented the parliamentary defence committee, the Defence Ministry, and army commanders with 23 letters from soldiers that detail ritual abuse over the last few decades across the different branches of the country’s military.
Initial reports about hazing at the Mittenwald mountain infantry unit in Bavaria emerged in early February after a young man who trained there came forward to describe humiliating rituals during which soldiers were forced to eat raw animal liver until they vomited and nude climbing exercises.

“We can only achieve clarification and improvement for the situation when there’s a start at uncovering what actually happened,” Robbe told broadcaster N24 on Tuesday. “And the goal must be not to just to stop it but prevent it from happening in the future.”

Robbe, who is scheduled to speak to the committee on Wedesday, also acknowledged that the hazing rituals had occurred “everywhere in the Bundeswehr.”

The Bundeswehr has launched an investigation into the Mittenwald matter, which Robbe said had garnered more than 50 additional letters from soldiers who experienced hazing there.

The treatment was supposed to be a rite of passage for soldiers to climb the internal hierarchy within units.

Among other letters describing abuse beyond Mittenwald, one was titled, “Mittenwald is only the tip of the iceberg,” and described how alcohol consumption was “practically ordered” during group social events.

Another letter penned by an enlisted man between 1996 and 1998 at various southern German stations detailed a game called “Jukebox,” during which young soldiers were shut into their footlockers and forced to sing.

Still another soldier who served as a naval officer two decades ago described something he called the “red-arse ritual,” where young recruits had an electric floor polisher applied to their bare backsides until their skin was raw.

Here is the story link

Once again, getting information out of an administrator is difficult, but it can be done. Classic example of a paper that let an andministrator and thus a school and team off the hook. Maybe there was nothing criminal that occurred. But the public cannot tell from this information.

Here is the link to the class blog

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Here is the link

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In an interview, the parents of one of the younger boys said they’ve made it a point to attend court, despite how difficult it was to relive the events that left their son and his best friend bruised both physically and emotionally.

“It is something I will remember for the rest of my life,” one of the boys wrote in a victim impact statement provided to the court.

The mother said both boys are now doing “really, really well” and have, as best friends, supported each other throughout the past year. So too have the boys’ families supported one another – and that’s been fortunate for more than one reason.

“(Our families have) been very close throughout this process and we’re both on the same page, right from Day 1, which was very helpful because there are many, many parents and students that still feel that there’s no issue here,” the father said. “And that’s where the courts vindicated the process that we went through. It’s been a difficult year, but hopefully a message has been made.”

The parents said they’ve been told numerous times that what happened to the boys isn’t a big deal.

“The reality is when you hear the story of what happened to our boys, as a parent I don’t know how you could not do something,” the mother said. “How can you possibly let that go by? So we just felt the need as parents that we had to do something. And I think that we’ve taught our kids through this whole process that when something does happen to you that it’s important to do the right thing – even though it can be extremely difficult and that you’re feeling that you’re going upstream and everybody’s going the other way. You still have to do what you believe in and we really feel like we’ve hopefully done that.”

The parents wanted to make it clear that they were never out for revenge against the teens who paddled the boys.

“There were really no winners through this whole process,” the father said. “We weren’t in it to ‘get’ anyone. It was more making sure the message got out, a precedent is set going forward, and we do hope that these young people become productive, good citizens.”

The parents said they’re pleased with the way the matter was handled by the police, the courts and Regina Public Schools – and that, at least, has given the families some relief.