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The Edutopia Poll
by Laila Weir
If a high school student wants to join a school sports team, the JROTC, or even the school band, chances are good he or she will suffer some form of hazing first. That's according to a study on hazing that found that 47 percent of high school students have been hazed; predictably, athletes are most often affected. The study found that the most common type of hazing is forcing newbies to associate only with members of the group they are joining, but other forms include sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, required tattooing or piercing, and drinking games -- sometimes until the students pass out. Recent news accounts have documented instances of even more physically and psychologically harmful hazing in high schools. And a representative of a national school association says this behavior is showing up in middle schools, too. We want to know if it's an issue in your area.
Having hazing, and having a problem with hazing are two different things. Calling all hazing a problem is painting with much too wide a brush.
When I went to high school we actually had an initiation day. A freshman was assigned to a senior and went through a very public initiation process. Since it was an open, sanctioned event, the school had control over what happened. As we entered the "new age" any initiation rites had to go underground. It is no surprise that they sometimes get out of hand.
I saw a problem within the last public school system that my kids attended school in - freshman football players were showered, heads were put in toilets by upperclassmen and kids were teabagged by teammates.
Them good old boys running the place did not see a real problem. Connections made a big difference. Many looked the other way - a survival technique for living in that isolated town.
North Georgia Mountains
The issue of the question is that kids are always trying to build hierarchical system in their relationships. I suffered a lot in school from hazing and I was not alone. But I has absolutely no problems like hazing in the college, because all students were a little bit older.
As we entered the "new age" any initiation rites had to go underground. It is no surprise that they sometimes get out of hand.
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