• Hazing Deaths
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Military & Secret Society Deaths
  • World Hazing Deaths & Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Wichita reporter covers the Hutchison High School alleged branding

November 10, 2013 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

Here is the link and a short excerpt:

The charges against the three football players identify the four alleged victims only by initials and say they are 14 or 15 years old.

After the hazing case surfaced, the Hutchinson school district released a statement on Nov. 1 saying that before practice Oct. 31, Dreiling learned that a hazing incident might have occurred. “Dreiling did an initial investigation and then turned the matter over to HHS administrators and Hutchinson Police to investigate,” the statement said. Before Oct. 31, it said, “Coach Dreiling made two announcements during team meetings that hazing would not be tolerated in any form. This is the week when some freshmen move up to the varsity squad, and the coach made the announcements to make it clear hazing was not tolerated.”

In the interview Friday, Kiblinger said the coach issued the admonition against hazing, “as I believe he does each year,” because “he knows that the temptation could exist when they have the freshmen move up.”

Kiblinger said her understanding is that the alleged hazing occurred in a boys locker room.

The coat hanger allegedly used to burn the freshmen was heated by friction caused by flexing the wire, Schroeder has said.

Fee, the father who has had three sons in the football program, said, “Promoting this type of stuff (hazing) is the furthest thing from Coach Dreiling. Most of the kids over there would tell you that,” said Fee, himself a former Hutchinson player and coach and now CEO of the Fee Insurance Group.

The Kansas state law against hazing is K.S.A. 21-5418. In the criminal complaint filed in court against each of the two 18-year-olds, hazing is defined as “unlawfully and recklessly coercing, demanding or encouraging another person to perform, as a condition of membership in a social or fraternal organization, any act which could reasonably be expected to result in great bodily harm, disfigurement or death or which is done in a manner whereby great bodily harm, disfigurement or death could be inflicted.”

Schroeder, the district attorney, said that under the definition of the crime of hazing, there doesn’t have to be an actual injury, “just that it was done in a manner whereby it could be reasonably expected to result” in injury.

Hank Nuwer, an Indiana journalism professor who has written four books on hazing and monitors hazing incidents around the world, said the Kansas hazing law sounds “better than most,” as far as being enforceable.

The key to defining hazing in legal terms is the recklessness or risk of the action, Nuwer said. Hazing, he said, is something “that an ordinary person would consider … risky or reckless or dangerous … and bizarre.” And the case alleged in Hutchinson seems to fit that definition, he said.

In 1924, he said, there was an incident in Brooklyn, N.Y., in which high school students used silver nitrate to brand freshmen.

Rick Wheeler, a longtime former Kansas high school football coach and now athletic director at Wichita Heights High School, said coaches have a number of motivations not to tolerate hazing or anything close to it. He said he is a friend of Dreiling, the Hutchinson coach, and isn’t commenting on the Hutchinson investigation.

For one thing, Wheeler said, “Coaches don’t have time to have goofy rituals.” And coaches hate distractions, he said. High school coaches, in particular, take seriously their responsibility to protect their athletes, he said. “You’re seen as being the guardian for (someone’s) child while they are in your care.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/10/3108654/alleged-hazing-incident-shines.html#storylink=cpy

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Books

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths

… Read More

Family alleges Adam Oakes dies from hazing at VCU: ABC

Here is the LInk Virginia Commonwealth University said it shut down Delta Chi fraternity and the police are investigating after a freshman student was found dead this weekend. Adam Oakes, 19, was found dead at an off-campus residence early Saturday morning by authorities, the university and the Richmond Police Department said in statements. The medical examiner’s […]

Hazing of pledge with a gun shuts down Kappa Sigma: ABC News

A New Mexico State University student has been accused of shooting a classmate in an alleged hazing incident that resulted in his fraternity’s suspension. Miguel Altamirano was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly shot Jonathan Sillas in the leg as he pledged the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Recent Stories from […]

Tallahassee police label December FSU fraternity death an accident, not hazing. Deaths involve FSU SAE and Sig Ep.

Here is the story link The death of a popular Florida State University student found unresponsive inside the Sigma Phi Epsilon house in December has been determined accidental, according to an autopsy released late Tuesday. The District Two Medical Examiner’s Office said the death of William Eppes Proctor, 22, was due to “right epidural hematoma due to […]

Pullman Police Chief Jenkins drops the ball in Big-Little death.

The police chief missed the deadline to post hazing charges. Shame on Pullman Police and the Prosecutor for letting the one-year statute of limitations expire in the “Big-Little” death of Sam Martinez, a travesty, at Washington State’s Alpha Tau Omega house. “We had our eyes on a potential more serious offense, that was manslaughter, and […]

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress