Hazing is in the limelight this week after 11 youths from Lanigan have been charged with assault after a "freshie party" at the beginning of September, where some used hockey sticks to paddle freshmen and doused them in chocolate sauce and eggs.
Hazing has long been a tradition associated with starting high school, a now-controversial welcoming from junior high into the "big leagues" where senior students do bizarre, sometimes violent things to freshmen as part of initiation into their high school .
Our parents went through it and their parents and even their parents before that.
Some will say it's just part of life, a rite of passage.
Others, and this seems to be a popular stance forming in recent times, will say it's unnecessary violence and bullying that shouldn't exist at all, no matter its root in tradition or sentimental right of passage associated with it.
With the much-publicized deaths of teens Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd as the result of relentless bullying, alongside thousands of other news stories of teens committing suicide because of teasing due to their sexuality, reputation or status in the social hierarchy of school, it's no wonder that events like high school initiations have come under the microscope as well.
The problem is that teens -the senior students in this case - just don't know when enough is enough.
A lot of freshmen get excited for initiation and are happy, albeit nervous, to go along with the weird and oftentimes embarrassing acts that the seniors will ask of them.
It's cool to be branded a high-schooler, and it's a way for them to say so-long to their awkward junior high days.
It's, ironically, an ego boost to feel you're part of something, even if it involves getting a bunch of old fish guts dumped on your head or tied up to the pillars in the lobby of your high school in just your boxer shorts. Embarrassing? Sure, but a lot of kids will laugh it off, knowing that the seniors who are doing this to them went through this themselves.
Now, they're in. They're officially a high school student. The hazing is worth it. They're finally part of something.
But if a senior student is paddling a freshmen or doing other violent or humiliating acts against the ninth-grader's will, then no, it's not ok. Even for the sake of tradition.
If the freshmen is making it blatantly clear that he or she is just not ok with it and doesn't want to be hazed, then seriously, back off.
A lot will go along with initiation, but some will not. And for those who aren't comfortable with it then let them be. They, and their buttocks, have every right to say heck no, without being labeled a nerd or loser.
The weirdest part of hazing is that in any other circumstance where an older teen is beating the crap out of a 14-year-old with a hockey stick, we'd all be shocked and horrified. But because it's "tradition", we chuckle and shrug it off, unless the kid is seriously injured or upset by the act, in which case it becomes a big to-do.
Well, that just seems to be the case with a lot of things. Quirky behavior gets excused because of the circumstance in which it falls. On a normal day, you wouldn't walk around with your face painted green and yellow and a giant foam piece of cheese sitting atop your head but go to Lambeau Field on Packers game day and you're in the minority if you're not dressed like that.
On a normal night, I'm not dressing up as a frightening clown and going to my neighbours' door asking for candy, but on Halloween, it's the only night where it's ok to do this (within a certain age range) without being branded a greedy brat or institutionalized.
So maybe the problem isn't paddling or other hazing acts, given the specific one-time circumstance it happens to fall into.
Maybe the problem is the teens who just don't know when to stop, who don't know how to take no for an answer.
Who just take it from a fun and weird rite of passage to full-blown violence that leaves teens in tears, with severe bruises and serious injuries instead of a smug smile with a sore butt and shaving cream caught in their hair.
So is it the entire act of hazing that's the problem? Or the specific senior students involved?
CM
