So if you show up, you allow the seniors to beat you up and you do not put up a fight (from the video it seems like none of the jurniors fought back). If you do not participate during the hazing session, and they come after you later, do the juniors fight back?

What is the benefit of getting beat up? Wouldn't you get more respect if you fought back?

And AXJules - thanks for the insight about this situation.

Tell that to the consumers of the media.

You think that at CSU, where a fraternity chapter was closed for allegedly sneaking GHB into drinks (later PROVEN to be a false accusation) - the CSU students remember anything of the quality of the chapter, OR, do they remember "oh, those were the date-rape-drug guys, right?"

Again, quality doesn't mean anything to anyone other than the students at this point. The quality of education is taking a distant second to the problems of hazing. Thank the media in part, but the girls as well, for not having brains enough to realize what they were doing (seniors and juniors alike), and the school - now trying to cower behind the "what were we supposed to do" defense.

Again you misread my post.
I am fully aware that our reputation will be indefinitely tarnished. But the way PiPhi wrote it, she insinuated that we have an undeserved reputation of being great. And that is simply untrue.

Ok well please keep in mind this year wasn't the norm, but anyway....
the benefit of getting beaten up at Powder puff is that its a one on one thing. Business is kept between the people that its between. If you don't go, a group will come after you later.
At Powder puff you do usually fight back, and it doesn't last long, just to prove you're willing to stick up for yourself.

The girls didn't fight back on the tape b/c this year was so brutal and there was a mob waiting to get them if they did. In previous years there was no violence (unless you and one girl had something to settle) and so there was nothing to fight back about.

Also, about pressing charges against every person that was there- the event is usually pretty spread out across a field. Sometimes there will be 2 or 3 circles far away from each other. So, you can have one girl fighting off by the trees where no one can see, and another circle cluelessly getting flour dumped on their heads in good fun. Obviously what the tape showed was about 60 people in one group, but there was another 2 circles of senior/junior girls just drinking with the guys off camera that weren't having anything done to them. (I'm talking like half a mile away ont he other side of the field.) They couldn't even see what was going on until it was almost over.

Not misreading at all. It's the old saying that "perception is reality".

I've been there. I know what it's like. You feel like you're defending the indefensible. But remember, the actions of a few have destroyed the good the many have worked hard for.

This is what I was trying to say. Humberside (my highschool) has/had the same reputation as GBN. To many outside the community it is still a great school, and parents that live outside the catchment (sp?) area are still trying to get there kids in. Now it's not so hard because those already ready enrolled in the school are leaving. 1/3 of my class transfered schools, at least 1/4 of my brothers class including my brother transfered schools because frankly Humberside went down the drain. It only takes a few people to destroy what so many have worked hard for.
I;m not saying the GBN has an undeserved reputation all I'm saying is that maybe many people in the community have been oblivious to the happenings at this school. All it takes is a teacher throwing themselves down the stairs to go on disability and blaming white supremicists (sp?), the neo-nazi students coming out of the word work, sever hazing resulting in assult charges (all Himberside, plus more). Now adays, one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.

Tales from the front
 

This is what the rumormill has to say right now:

1. These students can not participate in school functions for the rest of the year, but will graduate as scheduled, and participate in commencement.

2. Several of these girls are worried about having their college acceptances revoked. An Illinois state school can't do this AFAIK, but they could lose financial aid.

3. Five people videotaped the event. Four tapes were destroyed, and the fifth was sold to the media by a participant.

OK, maybe it's different because it's Canada, but how can you just "transfer" schools...is this a private high school? I mean, here where you live is the district you're in and that's it, unless you pay lots of $$$$ to another high school to go there, which is stupid cause you're having to pay twice. Or you can go to a private or religious school. But if you're in the GBN district, that's where you will go. I doubt that parents will all move out of the district just cause of this...

In Colorado, you can often attend any high school in your district, and can transfer without having to pay any tuition. Also, the Colorado Legislature just passed a school voucher bill which will allow cross district attendance and transfering.

Humberside is a public school. It used to be that way. There used to be many problems with people out of the catchment area that wanted to go to Humberside. Now students can just pick up and leave and go to any school in the city of Toronto

Re: It's getting worse
 

So the Tribune is suggesting that the parents had something to do with the collection of fecal matter? If that is true, that is seriously messed up.

"Mom, could you collect some #2 for me?"
"Sure hon."

There should be limits to a parents love. That might be it. :p

I think it's great that they're talking about this stuff in the open. I heard one of the talking heads from stophazing.org saying that hazing at colleges was actually on the decline! So for the most part they are acknowledging that we (the former major source of college hazing) have been fairly successful in self-policing.

Some thoughts.

What is striking about this story to me is how easily an allegedly "traditional" hazing ritual can so suddenly go terribly wrong. That's why I feel that there should be NO hazing. At all.

This school, apparantely is one of real excellence, (By the way, who rates a school #3 or whatever, by the way, and what are the criteria. I suspect that a lot of schools think they're in the "top ten," whatever that means. The biggest school in our district had 43 National Merit Scholars last year and has over 90 state athletic championships -- does that put it in the "top ten" Sorry, I digress.). But now, GBN will be remembered for this event. Remember Columbine? Much the same kind of school -- but what is the first thing you think of now? Not the same, you say? Absolutely true, but what if one or more of the girls had been more seriously injured, or even killed? Oh, and by the way again, the alleged "reason" for Columbine was the bullying and hazing of the two gunmen throughout their high school careers. They weren't in the "cool" group.

Think that potentially deadly senario couldn't have happened with all of the people around? Then why didn't people -- as a group -- step in? Maybe one person would have gotten beaten up if he/she tried to intercede -- but not if the group decided enough is enough. So, why didn't they? Ever read Lord of the Flies?

I agree with LXA Alum. This is highly disturbing. Not knowing anything about Illinois law, I don't know if the school can be held accountable -- but it should. The shirts being worn are a damning issue. Colleges have been taken to court for alcohol and hazing issues that occurred off campus. Again, refering to Columbine, the school, faculty and principal were highly faulted for not recognizing and stopping the events that led up to the tragedy there. Ever hear of In Loco Parentis? We, as a society, expect our schools to look out for the welfare of the students we send them. The administration should have been more proactive over the past several years. Most of what has been described as happening over that time could reasonably be considered assault.

I find it difficult to find any reasonable explaination for this.

Re: Re: It's getting worse
 

Good points, DeltAlum.

More news
 

My big's little biological sister was asked to participate last year, when she was a junior. She said no. That was the end of it. Nobody drove to her house and beat her up, nobody taunted her in the hallways, nobody even knew except the senior that had invited her. All she missed out on was a chance to be a hazer this year.

Here's the Illinois hazing law (source: www.stophazing.org):

Oklahoma Law:
§21-1190.

§21-1190.

A. No student organization or any person associated with any
organization sanctioned or authorized by the governing board of any
public or private school or institution of higher education in this
state shall engage or participate in hazing.

B. Any hazing activity described in subsection F of this section upon
which the initiation or admission into or affiliation with an
organization sanctioned or authorized by a public or private school or
by any institution of higher education in this state is directly or
indirectly conditioned shall be presumed to be a forced activity, even
if the student willingly participates in such activity.

C. A copy of the policy or the rules and regulations of the public or
private school or institution of higher education which prohibits
hazing shall be given to each student enrolled in the school or
institution and shall be deemed to be part of the bylaws of all
organizations operating at the public school or the institution of
higher education.

D. Any organization sanctioned or authorized by the governing board of
a public or private school or of an institution of higher education in
this state which violates subsection A of this section, upon
conviction, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be punishable by
a fine of not more than One Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($1,500.00)
and the forfeit for a period of not less than one (1) year all of the
rights and privileges of being an organization organized or operating
at the public or private school or at the institution of higher
education.

E. Any individual convicted of violating the provisions of subsection
A of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be
punishable by imprisonment for not to exceed ninety (90) days in the
county jail, or by the imposition of a fine not to exceed Five Hundred
Dollars ($500.00), or by both such imprisonment and fine.

F. For purposes of this section:

1. "Hazing" means an activity which recklessly or intentionally
endangers the mental health or physical health or safety of a student
for the purpose of initiation or admission into or affiliation with
any organization operating subject to the sanction of the public or
private school or of any institution of higher education in this
state;

2. "Endanger the physical health" shall include but not be limited to
any brutality of a physical nature, such as whipping, beating,
branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the elements, forced
consumption of any food, alcoholic beverage as defined in Section 506
of Title 37 of the Oklahoma Statutes, low-point beer as defined in
Section 163.2 of Title 37 of the Oklahoma Statutes, drug, controlled
dangerous substance, or other substance, or any other forced physical
activity which could adversely affect the physical health or safety of
the individual; and

3. "Endanger the mental health" shall include any activity, except
those activities authorized by law, which would subject the individual
to extreme mental stress, such as prolonged sleep deprivation, forced
prolonged exclusion from social contact, forced conduct which could
result in extreme embarrassment, or any other forced activity which
could adversely affect the mental health or dignity of the individual.

I spoke to a couple of my friends last night- so far one girl has been taken off the volleyball team and another removed from track and field- and they were both victims.

Also, there either has to be more tapes or less that were destroyed b/c there's 2 that are circulating right now. (One is of a much better quality than the other.)

And as far as not getting beaten up when you're big's lil sis was asked to play, thats' awesome. Seriously that's great, it is cool that she did was she thought was right and everything was fine. She probably was invited b/c her friends were and the seniors liked her.
But last year my neighbor had been cattily fighting with a senior during the school year, and I came home from college to see her with a black eye. She had said 'no' as well b/c she knew the girl that invited her didn't like her.

Ratings are done by Newsweek and USA Today, and any of those magazine/newspapers that do the top 100 HS...There is an organization thats in charge of it that comes to check out our school every year but I can't remember the name...

Every school has to submit their statistics every year to the govt...besides state awards in sports, grades are really difficult at GBN- I graduated with a 3.6 and I was only barely in the top 40% of my class of 480 people. They rank you on the facility you use, # of computers per child, ratings of teachers, etc..

Also, about transferring...I live in unincorporated Northbrook, practically Glenview which is where our sister hs is, Glenbrook South. I would have had to pay out of district fees to go there, even though its 4 minutes from my house. GBN is almost 20. You have to petition to the glenbrook township board...transferring to GBS (which is the only option as far as a cheap transfer) is going to be impossible b/c the school is really overcrowded.
My parents looked into sending me to a neighboring HS before my fresh. year so I could be with my friends....but it was $3000 a year. And its public.

I was thinking about this last night, and I also saw a sociologist get interviewed on FoxNews this morning, and, from the sociological perspective, there is a reasonable explanation...

This unfortunate incident can be demonstrated as a textbook example of Groupthink (Irving Janis' theory of how groups can make bizarre decisions). Other examples: Challenger, Bay of Pigs, Watergate.

If you have taken a sociology, psychology, or group/organizational communication class, you probably studied this theory. If you haven't, read about it - it happens more often than we like to think, and, the textbooks/journal articles all have suggestions on how to avoid it.

Here is some information I pulled off a website dedicated to group communication studies. Look this over carefully:

Groupthink

Groupthink is a concept that was identified by Irving Janis that refers to faulty decision-making in a group. Groups experiencing groupthink do not consider all alternatives and they desire unanimity at the expense of quality decisions. Learn more about groupthink and then complete the interactive exercise at the end of the discussion.

Conditions Groupthink occurs when groups are highly cohesive and when they are under considerable pressure to make a quality decision.

Negative outcomes
Some negative outcomes of groupthink include:

Examining few alternatives
Not being critical of each other's ideas
Not examining early alternatives
Not seeking expert opinion
Being highly selective in gathering information
Not having contingency plans

Symptoms
Some symptoms of groupthink are:

Having an illusion of invulnerability
Rationalizing poor decisions ("Tradition, anyone?")
Believing in the group's morality ("It can't happen to us!")
Sharing stereotypes which guide the decision (Tradition again!)
Exercising direct pressure on others (The forms the juniors had to sign - keeping this event secret up until it occurs - hey, it's only the COOL kids that get invited) :eek:
Not expressing your true feelings
Maintaining an illusion of unanimity
Using mindguards to protect the group from negative information

Solutions
Some solutions include:
Using a policy-forming group which reports to the larger group
Having leaders remain impartial
Using different policy groups for different tasks
Dividing into groups and then discuss differences
Discussing within sub-groups and then report back
Using outside experts
Using a Devil's advocate to question all the group's ideas
Holding a "second-chance meeting" to offer one last opportunity to choose another course of action

That "Devil's advocate" is particularly important. Most undergrad GLO's sometimes (not always) see the chapter advisor, or headquarters, or consultants as the "devil's advocate". Questioning the groups ideas is key - it's the fresh perspective, a pair of unbiased eyes, that many times can help avoid a catastrophe.

This is something I used to recommend to the chapter I used to advise - it's painful - having to confront reality sometimes in the face of bad ideas, but it does have it's payoffs. I urge all of you to give this serious consideration.

LXA,

Yup!

New video
 

LXA,
I learned about this phenomenon last week in my Social Psychology class. Pretty frightening stuff. I'm quite sure then, that you are well aware of cognitive dissonance, using external and internal justifications, and derogation of the victims. I bet all of these people involved are/will experience either one or all of these mentioned.

Sometimes a person can get "lost in the crowd" and do things that are otherwise unimaginable. When you do things as part of a group, the chances of being picked out are smaller than if an act was done alone.

Pretty messed up situation. Hopefully criminal charges will be brought up against those girls.

Did your neighbor call the police and file assault charges??? I'm really confused about why these girls think they can go to someone's home and attack them without any consequences. A school yard fight is one thing but going to a person's home to attack them is another. I don't understand the type of community that would allow this to go on without repercusions. I'm just confused. If ANYONE had come to my home with the purpose of beating me up my mother would have been on the phone to the police in seconds. :confused: :confused:

They didn't like, come in her house and assault her. The girl and 2 of her friends showed up at a party they heard *Lindsay* (not her name) was going to be at.

It's not like our community is ruled by people who come to your house and assault you. Obviously she didn't tell anybody about it, hence her mom didn't file charges. I guess I don't see it being that much different from any other fight taking place after school (not PP, but this thing w/ my neighbor). She felt like it was her own fault for not going (not condoning this, just relaying what she told me). And this isn't the norm, I mean these were two trashy girls who pretty much got into a regular schoolyard fight at a party. The only difference was that since she didn't go to PP, she had 2 girls going at her instead of one.

I have had quite a few of you pmming me and asking me why I'm sticking up for these girls. I am SO not. I don't know how to explain that the ones that turn things physical are the 2 or 3 trashy ones in a grade of 500. (This year is a horrible exception.) Usually if someone asked you to come that didn't like you she'd be a lil rougher putting food in your hair.
I always thought it was stupid, although everyone had fun the two years my grade was involved. I hope these girls are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Obviously I hope it doesn't continue anymore. And I don't think it's financially related- hazing happens in all classes, some people go INSANE and have no morals whether they have money or not. I am more concerned now with my friends that were hurt, and supporting the 95% of the school that was not involved. Its not easy on anyone, and given what he can do within the law, I think Dr. Riggle has done everything he can. I can remember sitting in his office the weekend ours was going to happen, as he called the police and told them PP was nearing. (Obviously I couldn't tell him where b/c I didn't know.) He has always cared and done as much as he could. Maybe you'll just have to take my word for that, you can analyze tapes and replay the press conference over and over but I will always know him better than all of you. I mean he isn't God. He can't give police information that he doesn't have. I think he has handled this pretty well, what with being open with the media and encouraging prosecution of the girls. In order for suspension to occur, Glenbrook district policy would have to be rewritten and that is in the hands of the school board and Dr. Hale, not Principle Riggle.

Anyway my intention was not to come in here and stand up for anyone that did something reprehensible. I just wanted accurate information to be used. And you can use whichever hazing laws you want, you can say what should or shouldn't have happened....its not going to change what did. There are factors/relationships/situations that most of you will never know about unless you went to school there and knew these people. Therefore I'd rather see us talking about praying for the victims and what can be done in the future to prevent it, instead of bashing the school for being snobby and "probably not top 5." Rankings don't matter when someone behaves like a criminal. ( I realize I brought up the rankings 1st but it was because several people suggesting blackballing all girls from GBN and saying that they weren't surprised it happened at a school like GBN.)

Anyway please don't think I'm angry while writing this, I'm just really tired of it. Last nite I was at a party and some guy saw my GBN necklace. When I asked him for a ride home he asked me if I was going to make him eat shit if he didn't do it. :rolleyes:

We should all thank Axjules for her honesty and the sharing of her experiences.

Her posts put her in the way of several people's anger as well as those pesky rolling eyes. . .:rolleyes:

But certainly her posts gave more insight and history into the situation than we otherwise would have.

Thank you AxJules:)

Agreed.

It's not an easy position to be in.

Thanks.

Edited to add:

My parenthetical question about the "top three" was not meant to question whether your school was one of excellence. I simply have never understood how those "ratings" can be realistic without the rating agency visiting and evaluating every school in the nation. An impossible job, I think.

I have a question for AXJules. How are the girls (seniors) involved responding to all of this? Are they apologetic, defensive???

Well the media has done a pretty good job of choosing/editing quotes and video until it looks like all of the girls involved said "Hey at least she didn't die." I can't really say anything since I'm a journalism student, but that's the part I've always hated about the field.
Anyway, there's a lot of the PP video that shows senior girls who played AND spectators both who pulled/tackled girls who were being too rough. Many of the girls took them home and gave them showers and protected them from getting hurt further while it was going on.
Also, lots of the girls are remorseful. Most keep saying they didn't mean for it to get so out of hand, but they were afraid to do anything to stop it. Pretty much what I would expect from a bunch of HS girls with the whole "follow the crowd' mentality. One girl has told people that she's good friends with one of the girls that brought the fecal garbage, and she didn't even know it was coming. She saw her friend turn into this scary maniac person and was scared to get in her way.
From what I've heard (and obviously this isn't for sure) the ones who haven't really shown any remorse are the 3 who were the most violent. They're just afraid of getting pulled from the colleges they got accepted to.
Essentially the 3 worst are continuing to show bad behavior, while stories are starting to come out about the 20 or so girls who did all they thought they could.

And by the way, thanks for the nice words. I don't want a medal, I just want a lil respect. :)

Here's another good article that better explains what I was trying to say.


`Powder-puff' lacked more than football


Published May 10, 2003


One thing you don't see on the broadcast videos of the Glenbrook North High School powder-puff football game that got out of hand is a football.

I looked. Frame by frame in many cases, my finger on the pause button, as though they were so many Zapruder films, I studied the powder-puff images from a reported six home video cameras shown on news programs.

I saw pig intestines, pig meat, pig poop (perhaps), but no pigskin.

Evidently, the pretense that the hazing is the culmination of an actual game between senior and junior girls was discarded when participants found that sport interferes with drinking and ritual sadism.

The lack of a football symbolizes the disconnect between the revolting off-campus melee last Sunday and the senior girls vs. junior girls gridiron contest of the same name that was held on campus during homecoming week at GBN until 1979. After that year, the school discontinued the tradition because the game was getting too rough, so the "game" went underground.

School officials ought to have realized at some point over the last nearly quarter of a century that their surrender simply invited more trouble and so amounted to dereliction. They should have reintegrated powder-puff (under a new, post-Title IX name, of course) with other supervised events--allowed the seniors to douse the juniors with sanctioned slop and force feed them mock excrement under the same controlled conditions as a school dance or parade. After a closely refereed football game, of course.

Actually, though, I wasn't studying those tapes looking for a football. I was looking for good kids, stand-up kids, kids who saw things getting out of hand and intervened to help the hapless juniors when the harassment turned ugly and bloody.

I saw none among the spectators, mostly boys in oversized windbreakers with their hands in their pockets; the same sort of shrugging, inert nitwits as the witnesses interviewed later on TV, who said, "I wish I could have done something." And the varsity football player who was quoted in the Northbrook Star: "I thought maybe I should try to calm things down, but I thought, what gives me the right to control what other people want? Mob rule: If the majority wants to see people messed up, that's what they're going to have. Once it started getting dirty, I just kind of walked away."

All were failing one of life's key pop-quizzes, the one that goes like this:

You're in a situation, and it begins to turn. Teasing crosses into cruelty. Or a prank grows into a crime. Silly gossip edges into malicious slander. Roughhousing escalates into violence.

You didn't start it. You didn't ask for it. But right then, on the spot, you have to choose between doing and saying the right thing, which is hard, and doing and saying nothing, which is easy.

Everyone faces such tests from time to time, except they seldom involve fish guts and aren't replayed afterwards to clucking viewers worldwide. You see a friend shoplift. You're in a conversation in which others are trashing a colleague you admire. You come upon a stranger beating a child or a spouse.

No time for deliberation or consultation. No middle ground. Your instincts take over, and those instincts are what we know as character.

Oddly (and mark my words), a careful viewing of the tapes shows that some of the goo-tossing senior girls in yellow shirts passed the quiz. In one vivid snippet, super slow motion shows No. 96 tackling No. 3 and shoving her away to prevent her from administering closed-fist punches to a girl cowering in the muck with her arms over her head.

Other footage--which has received less air time than the scenes that recall the Batley Townswomen's Guild of brawling historical re-enactors from TV's Monty Python--shows senior girls escorting battered victims away from the fracas and attempting to comfort them.

When the full story of this powder-puff game finally comes out and the videotapes are shown in their entirety in court, it still won't feature a football. But it'll be far more nuanced than it is today.

The number of real villains--those who took the expected hazing too far and crossed the line between disgusting hijinks and vicious mayhem--will shrink. The good character of some of today's purported villains will emerge. And the innocence of the innocent bystanders will fade.

Suspensions
 

A number of the students who were involved in breaking school policy against hazing and violating state law have been suspended for 10 days and the administration will recommend the students be expelled. No prom, no participation in graduation. They will be allowed to graduate with a GBN diploma.
Charges are still pending.

Here is the article from CNN today:


NORTHBROOK, Illinois (CNN) -- Some high school students captured on videotape assaulting some younger students in an off-campus hazing ritual will be suspended from classes, a school board member told CNN Monday.

Earlier, Glenbrook North High School Principal Michael Riggle said students who have been identified as perpetrators had been suspended from extracurricular activities, but had not been suspended academically because the hazing fell outside the school's jurisdiction.

Authorities said they could file criminal charges against the students as early as Monday.

Legal experts said the charges could range from simple battery to aggravated assault. Amateur video shot at the scene indicated there might have been premeditation because some of the attackers had baseball bats, authorities said.

Additionally, parents who may have bought alcohol for what was supposed to be a touch football game between the junior and senior girls also could be charged, Northbrook Deputy Police Chief Michael Green said.

Witnesses said the game between the Glenbrook North students never got under way. Instead, what began as some light hazing quickly escalated to violence, sending five junior girls to the hospital for treatment before their release.

Two of the injured said Thursday they had no idea the seniors would go back on their promise of not physically harming them during their initiation into the senior class.

"I was strangled and choked, and I was kicked in the head repeatedly," said Lauren, a junior. Another junior class member, Marina, said she was "repeatedly kicked and punched," adding, "They kicked my tailbone to the point that it fractured."

A videotape of the May 4 incident shows several students huddled together on the ground at an area park while others throw objects at them, including large plastic buckets.

Witnesses also reported urine, feces and fish guts were thrown and others said they had been forced to eat mud.

"Basically it started out as a fun hazing like our initiation into our senior year," a junior girl who had been injured said. "About 10 minutes into it everything changed -- buckets were flying ... people were bleeding. Girls were unconscious."

Principal Michael Riggle said the situation might have turned ugly in part because of the presence of alcohol. Videotape shot before the attacks began shows a number of girls chugging beer directly from keg taps while being held aloft by teenage boys.

Students who have been identified as perpetrators have been suspended from extracurricular activities, but have not been suspended academically because such a move falls outside the school's jurisdiction, Riggle said.

Back in 1979, there were problems with powderpuff, or touch football, games, he said, and the school discontinued the games, which had been used as fund-raisers. Ever since, the matches have been organized by the students.

The principal said that two days before the event, the administration attempted to elicit information about it in hopes of heading it off, but students "were not forthcoming" about what had become "a covert activity."

In fact, details were kept so secret that many of the participants did not know until an hour before the game took place what the time and location would be. The time and location of the game changes from year to year, though this was the first time that it had such a violent outcome, Riggle said.

The Cook County sheriff's department and the county's Forest Preserve District police are investigating the incident, which happened on Forest Preserve property near Northbrook.

Glenbrook North High School is in Northbrook, a suburb north of Chicago. The principal agreed with a reporter's depiction of the school's students as being mainly "upper middle class," adding that some 85 percent go on to four-year colleges.

This pisses me off. I'm glad the 15 were suspended, but there are 3 girls I have in mind that should NOT have the honor of a GBN diploma.

Understand your frustration, but I suspect that they've finished classes, etc. , they're probably leagally eligible for the diploma.

Totally agreed, I would 100% assume that they're legally entitled to it whether they're suspended or not. It was a statement along the lines of "I can't believe they didn't call me and let me administer their punishment :mad: "

More detailed, from Fox News (emphasis mine - looks like the lawyer "found" a loophole for suspensions and expulsions after all - the negative PR must have really made them look deep into the books)


GLENVIEW, Ill. — A suburban high school Monday suspended several seniors involved in a brutal off-campus hazing melee and will recommend the girls be expelled.

Principal Michael Riggle of Glenbrook North High (search) said he took the steps after the district's lawyer advised him that the school had broader powers to discipline students for the videotaped incident than he had thought.

The 10-day suspensions are the longest the school can mete out, Riggle said. He said it would be up to the district to decide whether to expel the students, which would bar them not only from campus but from the prom and graduation ceremonies.

"We have never tolerated actions of this nature within our school or by our students within the community, nor will we now or in the future," Riggle said.

Junior girls from the school were beaten and showered with mud, feces and garbage by seniors on May 4 at a Cook County park. Five girls were injured seriously enough that they had to go to the hospital.

The video has been shown on national television, to the embarrassment of the well-to-do Chicago suburb of Northbrook.

Riggle would not say how many students were suspended, citing the privacy of educational records. He said only senior girls who participated in the hazing were suspended, not other students who watched.

All those suspended will be recommended for expulsion, he said.

Expulsion from the school would not prevent seniors from graduating. Those seniors who have not yet earned enough credits to graduate will be sent to "alternative education" to complete their studies, Riggle said.

The students have three days to begin the appeals process, he said.

The school found that the students violated laws on hazing and assault, Riggle said. The investigation also found the students violated the school's hazing policy and the Illinois school code.

Earlier, Riggle had said he had little power to discipline the girls because the event was off campus and not sanctioned by the school.

Authorities have said criminal charges in the videotaped incident are likely. Steve Mayberry, a spokesman for the Cook County Forest Preserve Police, said investigators spent the weekend interviewing students and parents. Interviews were continuing Monday, with charges expected sometime this week.

Dave Hales, the superintendent overseeing Glenbrook North, called the effects of the videotapes "devastating." However, he noted that the incident involved a fraction of the school's nearly 2,100 students.

Authorities have been investigating anonymous tips that parents provided kegs of beer for the hazing, which started as a "powder puff (search)" football game. So far, they have no solid leads, Northbrook police said.

No surprize here. I think most of us suspected that the school had this option even though the event happened off campus.

The immediate comment, like the one from the school officials, is generally a quick CYA and then it takes a while to judge the damage and then figure out how much damage control is necessary. My guess is that the superintendent and principal might have underestimated a bit initially how far the hue and cry would carry. And, it's always easiest (at least at first) to claim a lack of jurisdiction -- trying to transfer responsibility away.

In the long run, though, there is clear responsibility on the part of the school and district -- at least in my opinion.

Further Consequences
 

From the Chicago Sun Times

(The number of seniors going to Northwestern seems too high to me...rumors at GBS are that some girls have already had their admissions revoked. I have no idea whether this is true or not.)

Hazing could affect college plans


BY DEBRA PICKETT Staff Reporter

Students disciplined in the violent melee involving Glenbrook North High School students might be facing more than just an ugly end to their high school days. Their college careers might also be on the line.

About half of all U.S. colleges require incoming students to tell them about any serious trouble they've gotten into since they filled out their applications, including the University of Illinois, where, according to the high school's Web site, 174 Glenbrook North current seniors have enrolled.

"There's a committee that evaluates each case," Robin Kaler, a spokesperson at the University's Urbana-Champaign campus, said Monday. "They look at each report individually to determine whether the student might pose a clear and present danger to other students here. If the answer is 'yes,' they recommend to the director of admissions that our offer be rescinded."

It's very likely, admissions experts said, the suspended Glenbrook North seniors will face additional questions, and possibly disciplinary sanctions, from the colleges and universities they'd planned to attend.

"Their admission could be revoked," said J.P. Allen, president of My Footpath, a Chicago firm that offers counseling and coaching services for high school students applying to highly competitive colleges. "At the very least, colleges are going to look twice. They all reserve the right to change their minds based on a student's performance senior year."

High school seniors who have been admitted to the University of Illinois and who have written back agreeing to enroll there are already subject to the school's disciplinary code, Kaler said. Under this code, she said, "students who have been caught hazing on our campus have, at times, been separated from the university." It's also possible, Kaler said, that students involved in violent incidents like the one May 4 at Chipilly Woods forest preserve near Northbrook "might have to agree to special conditions" before being allowed to attend the University of Illinois.

"They might have to take a violence-prevention course," she said, "or might not be allowed to live in a dormitory."

At Northwestern University, admissions officers send a form to high school guidance counselors each spring, asking them to report any "significant changes" in an accepted student's performance or behavior. The reports are evaluated by the admissions office on a case-by-case basis and could trigger responses ranging from no action to a retraction of admission. Northwestern, where 81 Glenbrook North seniors have enrolled, according to the high school's Web site, does not give a specific definition of what must be reported, said spokesman Charles Loebbaka, so it's not clear that the Glenbrook High School administrators would have to report a student's involvement in the violence in the forest preserve.

Harvard--where two Glenbrook North seniors have enrolled--requires applicants and their high schools to report all "changes of status," including suspensions or expulsions. Each case is reviewed by the university's admissions committee, Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Harvard College's admissions director, said Monday, adding, "We are not reluctant to withdraw the offer of admission." Harvard does just that in a handful of cases "every year," Lewis said. "Physical violence, or serious harassment, this would be a great concern to us."

Not sure if anyone else heard about this, but I was watching Fox News this morning and they reported that one of the seniors involved in the incident filed a lawsuit against the school for the 10 day suspension. Does anyone else think that is just pure insanity? I mean they did have to sign a code of honor/conduct before enrollment to GBN correct?

I just read this report on the AP wire too. It proved my point: "Mommy, Daddy, I behaved like an animal and I'm about to be held accountable for my actions--call the lawyer! Waaaaahhhhhhh!"

:rolleyes: