I was appalled yesterday when I watched Montel. I don't usually watch these shows so maybe that was why I was so shocked. We don't even usually have the TV on for that matter. I also homeschool so I guess I'm not really in touch with what goes on in schools these days. So if this is old news to you all I apologize in advance.

The show had 3 kids which had been victims of hazing beyond my belief. The worst thing I ever saw growing up was a senior having a freshman carry his books. And that was a mutual thing that I suppose both considered funny.

One young girl was accosted in the shower at cheerleading camp. They stuffed a sock in her mouth, tied and taped her to a chair, and left her under a cold, running shower for hours until she was found. The poor girl threw up uncontrollably for weeks afterward and lost 30 lbs in a month she was so distraught. Neither the coach or the school seemed very concerned.

A boy who was a football player was told by the coach to turn in his equipment at the end of the year in the varsity locker room (he was JV). He said he hesitated because another boy had been beaten up in there a few weeks before. Well on the way out of the locker room he was stopped and beaten and kicked to the ground. This kid had to go to the hospital with fluid around his lungs. This was after he made it through the rest of the day at school because he feared the repercussions of asking for help or reporting it. Oh, did I mention the coach saw the incident?

The third guest was a boy who made the choir. He was invited to a choir party where unbeknownst to him the newbies were going to be initiated. He was blindfolded with a sock soaked in tobasco sauce and warned not to open his eyes or there would be pain and damage to his eyes. He was repeatedly hit with a 2x4. Then pushed into a mud puddle full of feces and urinated on. Then he was squirted off with a hose and sent on his way. Oh, did I mention there were parents present?

What is the matter with people these days? I can't believe kids would treat each other like this. My husband says that for every story like this there are thousands of good stories. An another horrible thing is that the perpetrators hardly faced any consequences for their actions. If this is the norm for handling such things then these incidents won't be isolated for very long. How could anyone be gratified by such mistreatment of another human being?

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2002

Answers

I thought our hazings were bad. We only had to streak the Food World on Wednesday night after churches let out, though.

-- Anonymous, June 04, 2002

Naw! The good ole USA isn't a violent country is it?? We had terrible hazing in my hi school too. I sent my 2 kids to private schools plus a couple of homeschooling just to keep em away from that stuff....Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Maybe a small part of that gratification is that people just love to watch others make fools of themselves to join 'their' crowd. That old saw, (paraphrasing) "I refuse to join a club which would allow me as a member" sometimes rings awfully true at times.

A small degree of hazing is permissible, but I think all of us should draw the line where people become victims of assault. I also think people in authority who witness this and do not stop it or even come forward are accomplises (?) to this behavior. It is sad.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Denise, yes, it should be outlawed for sure. I think they quit having them at the highschool that I went to because they got too carryed away with my freshman group. Give someone a little power and they get giddy with it! I was force fed ex- lax. Crazy Crazy world.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Oh, Tren. I am so sorry that happened to you.:( Yes, crazy world.

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

Jeez, I must live a charmed life.........I never heard of any of this crap when I was in school. sick.........

-- Anonymous, June 05, 2002

I don't think things were this bad when I was in school. The abuse I suffered was just taunting and shunning, not physical violence. The only thing similar to this happened to me back in 5th grade. The first day that I wore a bra rather than an undershirt to school the 6th grade girls beat me up in the bathroom and took it away from me. I was too embarassed to tell the teacher.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

Denise, I suspect these three incidents were on tv because they are NOT the norm.

I was hazed the first few weeks of Junior High school, as were many others, but nothing like that!

If you want to see where this type of behavior is (was?) truly the norm, go to boot camp, at least in the Coast Guard (where I went to be a de facto draft dodger in the sixties) or Marines.

The CO's (Commanding Officers) were truly sadists, and there was lots of mental and phsical assaults on virtually all the troops. One guy, because the CO thought he was too fat, was forced to do deep knee bends for about ten hours, being forced to run around the stairwell when he couldn't do another knee bend, then back to the knee bends. He couldn't walk normally for the next twelve weeks that we were in boot camp, and was pissing blood for several days. I could go on, but I won't-it was not pretty.

Mothers, don't let your babies grow up to be Coasties!

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

Joe, pissing blood in boot camp is so common there's even a medical term for it. It's called "march hemoglobinuria" because it usually appears after a long march.

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

Some of the worst brutality came from the jocks who were taught to inflict and endure punishment. I played football and was forced to play once with a broken nose. Boy that hurt!! If we lost we had to practice till you were sick and some passed out from the heat! If you managed to hurt someone while in a game you were a "hero"!! Of course the jocks "HAZED" the crap out of the other normal students. That was a tough school that I went to but even now I heard in the big cities its 10 times worse!

Hey Tren... The reason you were forced to eat ex-lax is because you were the prettiest girl in school and they were totally upset about it....RIGHT......Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

I can't believe that some of these hazing incidents took place in either middle school or high school!! Like EM, I guess I led a charmed life and didn't come in contact with anything like this while in grades 1 through 12!! (Other than the typical "groupie" thing). Hazing was common when I entered college, though. I did my best to keep to myself and avoided being drawn into confrontations...then I quite college!!

Joj...I'm sure that you and my hubby, Harry, would have several stories to share about boot camp! He got his draft notice in May of 1971...one month after he had completed two years of college. We had just eloped!!! Not wanting ANY part of Vietnam, he immediately went to the nearest draft board and signed up for the National Guard. He doesn't talk much about the first six months of his duty (6 yrs. totaled!). Then he spent the next several years in Boston during the civil rights movement. We are SO glad that we escaped to the woods of Maine when his duty was completed. Strange thing is...he never got any official discharge papers because the folks in charge said that he would re-up for the money!! No way!! Do ya think that he could collect "back pay" :-)??!!

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2002

I got one for ya. When I was in 7th grade, just before math class, 2 of my female classmates used to stand on either side of my desk and take turns hitting me in the face with their fists. The teacher was always late to class so that is when it took place. All the other kids watched and did nothing. This went on for what seemed an eternity, but was only about a week or two as I remember.

I tried to defend my self without using actual violence, but nothing worked. I also told the teacher who did nothing about it. I guess I didn't tell the folks because I didn't want them to come to school and probably make matters worse.

Anyway, one night I was sitting on my bed painting my long fingernails I got an idea. I filed all my fingernails to a very sharp point. Them the next day at the beginning of math class here come those girls again. When the first one made a move to hit me I jumped up, sunk my fingernails into the side of their faces, and pulled down as hard as I could. You should have seen their faces! Both the blood and their expressions! Well, to make a long story short, they never bothered me again and as we got older we actually got along. One of the girls was at our 5 year highschool reunion picnic. When the light hit her face just right you could still see faint lines down one side. He He He

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2002

Yikes Debra!! I'm not sure you should tell this one to new hubby or not!!!!!.....Kirk

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2002