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Troublesome hazing in Ben & Jerry’s backyard.

Moderator Hank Nuwer:  Last Fall the corporate board of Ben & Jerry’s voted to keep the name of its flavor “Hazed and Confused,” determining that it saw no harm in celebrating an action called “hazing” that has been condemned by educators and is against the law in 44 states. In addition to myself, strong pleas for a name change were made by Elizabeth Allan of Stophazing.org and Lianne Kowiak, an award-winning hazing activist and mother of Harrison Kowiak who died in a senseless hazing at Lenoir-Rhyne in North Carolina.

Predictably, as the board made its decision, a disturbing high school hazing case on the Milton High School football team occurred less than 10 miles from the Burlington corporate giant’s headquarters. As a result of horrific sexual hazing, one teen committed suicide and five former football players were charged with serious crimes. Now, as I write, the community of Milton has been trying to find a way to heal the community with new hazing policies and discussions after an independent ruled this:

“Five Milton School District employees — including Superintendent John Barone and high school Principals Anne Blake and Scott Thompson — failed to follow school policies in the wake of hazing rituals for the varsity football team, a new independent investigation has concluded.

The report was designed to determine if Milton School District administrators and employees complied with all rules, regulations and policies designed to protect children.

A previous criminal investigation revealed five Milton football players held initiations that included sexually hazing younger players with broom sticks or pool cues, court records showed.

The hazing case spread over several years and included criminal convictions for the five former players. One hazing victim died by suicide a year after he was assaulted, and the Vermont Legislature adopted a new law this year designed to provide greater protection for children, including for hazing.” –Burlington (VT) Free Press

Let me add my two cents: There are other adults in the Burlington, VT area who failed the public by continuing to dismiss the seriousness of hazing despite numerous sexually assaulted youngsters, the ruined lives of perpetrators, and most of all, the suicide of a victim. Meet the shortsighted board of Ben & Jerry’s.

Once again, we ask Ben & Jerry’s board to do the right thing.  Take “Hazed and Confused” off the nation’s shelves.

 

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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