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Karl Note: We have seen the power of amateur videos
taken at events such as the Chicago School Hazing Incident. It is hard to
ignore the "truth" in these videos. Obviously these videos are incomplete
slices of life, but we tend to think of them as accurate for that slice.
It is hard to find any other explanation for what was seen in these videos --
other than "wrong behavior" gone wild.
Perhaps the Senior girl in the football suit, Number Three, has some other explanation for what we saw in those video shots -- but I don't think anything will ever remove those scenes from the consciousness. Those who were involved? They, of course, will have justifications. But, for the rest of us, this surely was an example of "wrong behavior."
Who is responsible, morally? That is a fine question for this Discussion Group.
Here is the story, in several of its many forms.
Tape of local high school hazing becomes world news
Raw TV Footage -- Amateur Video Of The Incident
School Hazing Takes National Spotlight
Charges Likely in Ill. High School Hazing
Police Look at Parents in School Hazing
Best, brightest, well-lit place
has video to explain
May 8, 2003
BY BRYAN SMITH AND JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporters
From Saskatchewan to suburban London, the story of hazing at a high school in a Chicago suburb has passed into the world's consciousness through TV, radio and print.
CNN and the BBC are on the story, with CNN's Paula Zahn devoting a segment to it Wednesday night. "The O'Reilly Factor" and Oprah want a piece. "Inside Edition" is hunting down guests.
The videotaped beatings of a group of Glenbrook North High School girls at the hands of seniors in a "powderpuff football" game have flashed across cable channels and network newscasts.
The school's semi-secret rite of passage has suddenly become a flashpoint for discussion of teen cruelty.
The video, taken Sunday at the Chipilly Woods near the Northbrook school, shows a group of girls, all juniors, huddled in a circle. They cower against blows from senior girls who endured similar treatment last spring. One or two flee, only to be tracked down and beaten. A bat is swung. A can. Punches are thrown.
All of this happens while a crowd of teens watches from the sidelines.
In the days since, the girls have come forward, some limping, with bruises and broken bones. Details of the hazing tradition--its "rules," the form girls are expected to sign, the understanding that violence is involved--have trickled out.
On Wednesday, the Cook County Forest Preserve police said they will bring charges by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the world is joining the Chicago area in asking: How could girls from well-heeled suburbs turn into attackers?
And why did the Glenbrook North girls submit themselves to such cruelty, even if they didn't realize powderpuff football could turn so violent?
Principal Mike Riggle said Wednesday he has made it a point to be "open with our stance on this, instead of rejecting interviews. I think that has probably caused us to be more exposed."
Any punishments, he said, would be "possible actions on students through extracurricular activities," such as barring them from sports or club games.
Whether students are punished, Riggle said, damage has been done to the school.
"We were a school that enjoyed a great reputation," he said, "and I think it's been tarnished."
Students feel it, too. "I think it's awful," said senior Jamie Glickstein. "Now, everyone's going to look at our school and think of this."
Participants explained the game along these lines: Enduring such ordeals creates a bond and gives status to those who survive.
"That's the apology given, anyway," said Bernard Beck, a Northwestern University sociologist. "Once you have that, you're given essentially a legitimate justification for being cruel, almost to the point where you're required to be cruel, even if you didn't want to be."
There are people willing to endure fear to feel part of a dominant group. "It's a ritualized way to mark a rite of passage," said Bradley Pechter, a psychiatrist at Northwestern.
Raw TV Footage -- Amateur Video Of The Incident
School Hazing Takes National
Spotlight
May 8, 2003 2:19 pm
US/Central
CHICAGO(CBS 2)
Glenbrook North High School students hurt in a violent
hazing incident are speaking as a new videotape surfaces. Students say they're
worried the entire event is giving their school a bad name worldwide.
Police and school officials are now pouring over new tapes to see if criminal
charges should be filed, and we're learning more about what it was like to be
trapped at the center of that filthy pack.
According to a school official, Northbrook police have been given the names of
two parents who supplied the keg that students were drinking in the forest
preserve during the hazing on Sunday.
More videotape of the hazing has surfaced, and it's become evidence for police
trying to determine who could face charges.
Millions of people around the world have seen the infamous pictures. This
morning, two victims told a national audience about their injuries on the CBS
Early Show.
“We were promised by many of the Senior girls that we would not be physically
hurt, and for us to be mauled like that…” said Marina, one of the alleged hazing
victims.
“Someone that I was friends with kicked me in the head, strangled me. I couldn’t
even believe it,” says Lauren, another hazing victim.
Students who did not participate are angry about the bad reputation Glenbrook
North is getting. Some worry it will hurt their college applications.
"Everyone is getting phone calls from relatives out of state, being appalled.
‘What kind of school do you go to?’” says Danielle Sassower. “This is a
phenomenal school. This is one of the best schools in the area by far. Stupid
seniors. They messed up."
"Before, we were portrayed as a good school. We helped our lunch lady get a car
because she needed it," says Brandon Franklin.
Just five months ago Glenbrook North students bought a new car for Lydia Bonitas,
a cafeteria worker who lost her car in a crash and has no insurance.
The school may kick athletes off teams for violating the code of conduct. This
witness believes only three to six girls would deserve criminal charges for the
punching he saw.
"It was because they had personal anger towards these people. They had some sort
of grudge against them,” says Nich Babb.
Forest Preserve police expect to file charges as soon as Thursday. In the
meantime, the investigators are still talking to students, witnesses and
victims, and of course examining the video tape.
Chris Hernandez
(© 2003 CBS 2 CHICAGO. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
 |
 (AP Photo) |
Charges Likely in Ill. High School Hazing
Police Say Criminal Charges 'Very Likely' in Illinois
High School 'Powder Puff' Game Hazing
|
CHICAGO May 8 — Criminal charges are "very likely" in a touch football game between high school girls that turned into a brawl, police said Thursday. Cook County Forest Preserve District Police spokesman Steve Mayberry said he did not know the specific charges or how many people would be charged. Police continued to investigate the case Thursday.
The annual, unofficial "powder puff" game among students at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, a well-to-do suburb about 20 miles north of Chicago, landed five players in the hospital. One girl broke her ankle, another needed 10 stitches in her head. The game was supposed to be a "friendly initiation" for incoming seniors, one of the victims said. Videotapes of the game, played Sunday at a park, show girls in yellow jerseys punching, slapping and dumping paint on junior girls kneeling on the ground. Some spectators hoist cups of beer. There were also reports of human feces being thrown. The seniors apparently invited the juniors to what they described as a hazing, charging them $35 to $40 and supplying them with jerseys, officials said. The injured girl who needed stitches told the Chicago Tribune they expected only some form of mild hazing, "a friendly initiation into our senior year." The newspaper said she and others, speaking on condition of anonymity, told of being hit by buckets and having pig intestines, fish guts and other foul-smelling trash thrown at them. School officials stressed that the game was not sanctioned and occurred off-campus without their knowledge. "It was hazing," said Dave Hales, superintendent of Northfield Township District 225. "It was deplorable treatment." Hales said he was baffled why students participated in the game. "Why would you pay money to go to something where you know you will be treated inappropriately and humiliated and possibly injured?" he said. School and police officials were reviewing the videotapes to try to identify the ringleaders. The school could discipline students involved in extracurricular activities or athletics because they signed a code of conduct requiring them to behave well both on and off campus. The school district used to sponsor a powder puff football game at homecoming but discontinued the event in 1977 after it became too rough.
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Best, brightest, well-lit place has video to
explain
Publication Date: 05/09/03
Let's go to the tape.
In case you missed it, the amateur video shot at what was billed as a girls powder puff football game/initiation ritual looked more like an adolescent sacrifice ceremony re-created for reality TV.
This was no ordinary catfight.
I will not do the images justice, but seniors from Glenbrook North High School near Chicago slugged, pummeled, kicked, slapped and pounded juniors who paid $35 to $40 for a chance to be part of the initiation.
Accompanying the beatings -- five girls went to the hospital, one to close a head wound with 10 stitches and another to set a broken ankle -- were dousings with assorted yuck including paint, blood, fish guts, pig intestines and human feces.
And all this time we thought those ridiculous eating stunts on "Fear Factor" had no redeeming social value.
After the seniors drained their buckets of such sludge, they used them as weapons, pounding heads, beating backs and wailing on wings of helpless juniors.
The video shows several girls pleading with their tormentors while groups of young men hoisted cups. My money is on beer, but you draw your own conclusions.
Nor am I arguing that an unofficial high school initiation gone awry is a sure sign that the apocalypse is on us, but neither does this qualify as a fun football game that got out of hand. Gutted carp and Porky's entrails take some planning.
Out of control
Neither is Glenbrook North, which had no idea the game/brawl took place, a poster school for the inner city, the kind smug politicians cite when they harumph! about what's wrong with public education. The high school is in clean, well-lighted Northbrook, 20 miles north of Chicago, an upscale, best and brightest kind of place.
When police arrived, the crowd of 100 scattered, but authorities are checking the tape and considering charges. The melee took place off campus.
Since stupidity remains legal, I suppose the cops and school administrators will be putting their eggs in the assault or rioting basket. That will look good on the kids' resumes.
Of course there is always the "kids will be kids" defense, the fall-back position that argues it was simply a childish mistake and let's have a bunch of hugs all around.
Four girls said they expected some sort of mild hazing, but realized early on that the "game" was out of control. One, who came away with a concussion, said she was strangled with a pig intestine. Another said she knew there was a problem when she looked up and saw a teammate bleeding. That would negate the whole powder puff thing.
Of course, sociologists and criminologists have been pointing out recently that girls now have the dubious distinction of being as vicious as boys. Ask any woman who ever had to endure the attacks of a catty group of female teens and she'll tell you that equality of the sexes -- when it comes to being despicable -- was reached long ago. Girls have only recently added fists, knives and guns.
Beer, bad day
Of course among teens, motive could be anything -- from romantic tensions fueled by love gone south, a popular motif among adults who lose it, to the less mature somebody-looked-at-me-the-wrong-way. Throw in a beer or seven, a cheering section of high school boys and you have all the makings of stupidity.
The tape is clear. Only angry or impaired young women punch, kick and belt people with buckets the way they did in Chipilly Woods near the corner of Grant and Lee roads Sunday afternoon.
You would like to believe this is a statistical aberration, that the planets misaligned for a few moments. That all those millions of good kids and the other 2,000 at Glenbrook North make up for the violence and utter meanness on the video. You hope the incident is isolated, explainable. That it was beer or a bad day or mob psychology.
You have to wonder what all the advantages of Glenbrook North amounted to Sunday afternoon.
George Ayoub is senior correspondent at The Independent
Click here to return to story:
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/050903/opi_ayoub09.shtml
© The Grand Island Independent
Source
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