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Hazing News

Letter to moderator from East Carter HS parent

A new comment on the post #763 “Breaking News: East Carter basketball coach quits in Missouri”

Comment:
The hazing incident that happened during the basketball camp at Lyons College is a tragedy that will haunt many lives for years to come.  Most people have no idea what the parents of these victims are feeling.  We can only try to put ourselves in their shoes, and think about how we might react if it had been our child put in that position.  The boys who were victimized were terrorized for 4 days.  The fact that Lyons college say they knew nothing about what was going on just proves, in my opinion, the lack of supervision in place during this basketball camp.  When you have 22 boys on a floor in a dorm room, and they are screaming for someone to stop, and to leave them alone, wouldn’t you at least check to see what they were doing?  I think I would have at the very least gone up to the floor they were on and asked them to settle down.

The parents have tried to be patient and let the authorities handle the situation.  The last thing they want is to traumatize their sons even further by causing a huge media circus.  The boys already have had to deal with lewd comments from athletes from other schools during baseball games (Van Buren athletes I think).  How much worse are those comments going to be when they are fact-to-face on a basketball court?  It is sad that a handful of boys made very stupid decisions and put a cloud over an entire school.  I wish people would realize that the actions of those 6 boys do not reflect the actions of the other 750+ students at East Carter.

It is my desire for parents and coaches to talk to their athletes and children about the effects their comments can have on other people.  If people would consider how they would be feeling if it were their children or grandchildren involved in such a horrific event, I don’t think there would be as much gossiping, or taunting from either side.

The authorities in Arkansas have been less than cooperative in providing the information required of their own Victims Rights Laws. It is my desire that the media would be able to help the victims and their parents in finding out why it has taken over two months to file charges, and why evidence seems to be evaporating into thin air between offices in Arkansas.  It is a sad day in America when victims are treated as the enemy when trying to find out information from elected public officials who are put into office to represent and protect the law-abiding citizens that put them there in the first place.

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. In April of 2024, 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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