Categories
Hazing News

Some schools declare war on hazing: Globe

Excerpt below and link to story here: 

Schools reopen, renew push against hazing

By Robert Carroll, Globe Correspondent | September 7, 2006

For many area high school athletes, autumn means end-zone celebrations, beautifully crafted soccer goals, and long putts coolly drained. But for some players, it could signify something darker — like being forced to drink alcohol, shave their heads, and even endure beatings.

Hazing season, as some refer to it, is upon us.

“The start of school sports is always a time to start monitoring,” said Paul Wetzel, spokesman for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. … Hank Nuwer, author of the book “High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrongs,” points to a 1999 study by the National Collegiate Athletic Association that found that 80 percent of student athletes had, at some point, faced a hazing incident as reason to believe the situation might never be totally cleared. “Hazing is out there,” said Nuwer.

Nuwer said he believes mentoring programs like those in place at Duxbury and Plymouth North are a great start.

“When older kids respect younger kids, there isn’t that need for control,” he said. “That’s the key.”

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 and April 2025 , 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.

Leave a Reply