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Needham parents won’t speak at meeting

Here is the story link to the Boston Globe and an excerpt from the Globe article.

At the last School Committee meeting, Mary Ellen Dunn, whose sophomore daughter is on the team, requested permission on behalf of the team’s parents to publicly present information related to the incident.

Dunn said parents are concerned that the soccer players’ civil rights may be violated if they are suspended. Dunn said that after she requested to present information at the committee meeting, Barr and Marianne Cooley, the committee’s vice-chair, offered to meet with her and other parents.

The parents met with Barr and Cooley, then with Superintendent Daniel Gutekanst, before the Thanksgiving break, said Dunn. She said she does not know whether the information she gave administrators has made an impact on the appeals process.

“We have provided them with all the information we have, including the information we have regarding the due process and civil rights violations that occurred with the suspensions,” said Dunn.

Dunn said the parents are not opposed to taking action against hazing behavior, but they believe the athletes should have had appeals before facing suspension. She said other punishments less harsh than suspension would have conveyed the message.

“We certainly agree they should investigate it, and there should be some consequences,” she said. “I would support a no tolerance message; every parent would, short of suspension from school.”

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. 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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