I went to an "exclusive" *GAG* preparatory school in PA for high school.. the kind that's all obsessed with public appearance.. and yet there is a long-standing tradition of Freshmen Orientation.
The seniors choose freshmen for that week, giving them embarrassing outfits to wear and embarrassing tasks to perform. There are rules about what can and can't be done, obviously.. you can't make people eat/wear (including makeup)/etc anything that would be detrimental to their health or beliefs, and there is always the option to decline if an instruction makes you uncomfortable. Granted, at the most, there are only about 40 students in either the senior or freshmen class, so it is very easy to control what is going on, and everything is limited to on the small school property only during normal school hours, and cannot interfere with academics.
When I was a freshman, the theme was barnyard commando. If you weren't given a crazy costumes to wear, you basically just wore camoflague (sp?) clothing and a sign with a particular animal..(I had a cow sign, and my senior also gave me a hat and a cowbell to wear...I'm an Aggie.. what do I mind? LOL). Freshmen weren't allowed to use a bookbag for their books and had to carry a bag full of balloons. At one point, we were stopped outside and instructed to do jumping jacks between classes. Big deal, right? Freshmen who gave lip to a senior or did something wrong were brought to "Kangaroo Court" during prep school lunch where they were given a task to perform.. I had to sing a song on stage as my "punishment". (ok, I'll admit...I had Orientation very easy, b/c I was shy and quiet and no senior had any reason to want to embarrass me...other kids in my class had older siblings/team mates/etc in the senior class...)
The last day of Orientation was always the Pajama Parade, in which the Freshmen had to walk all over town (on a day when other area schools usually had a day off) in pajamas or some other outfit (how fitting.. I wore sheep pajamas
).
Anyway, the following week, the Senior Slave Auction was held, in which students (in any grade, from 7th through 11th) paid money to "torture" a Senior. This was the main fundraiser for the class, so they could hold their prom, etc, and the event was always fun...our theme was that Dr. Evil kidnapped Brittney Spears and various singers had to be auctioned off to raise the money to pay her ransom..(just to point out that most of us had no issue with dressing up and having some fun, so we weren't really concerned with being told to dress up for orientation).
Overall, I guess the process wasn't so bad, depending on who you are and who has it in for you... Of course, in a school where we also had random dress up days.. in place of a rather strict dress code, most students didn't mind being told to dress oddly, and never were any of the costumes sexually inappropriate (guys might have had to wear dresses, but always of modest length), nor were any of the tasks. Nobody ever finished Orientation feeling hurt or violated. I realize there is a fine line between what should be considered appropriate and what is considered hazing, but it is my opinion that "hazing" is something that is psychologically, emotionally, or physically detrimental, and this was all in fun. The only "punishment" for not going along with your Freshmen Orientation was that you would not be allowed to have a freshmen that week when you were a senior, unless you allowed your senior classmates to put you through a day or two of it prior. You still got all your "Freshmen privilages", like leaving campus for lunch, and the next day after orientation, the seniors would treat the freshman class to a meal.
And now, I'm rambling...