[momoftwo]

The last of the kids charged in the GBN hazing incident pleaded guilty yesterday. This kid's supervision won't be able to be expunged from his record, unlike all the other kids involved. This kid has been in trouble before.

There are still some loose ends--how will the school board react to the recommendations of the hazing task force, for example. We got a new handbook in the mail a few weeks ago with the schools rights to react to things that happen off school grounds made much more clear. The schools seem to act more quickly to issues which could become newsworthy--for example, our club hockey team waved a confederate flag in the homecoming parade (we're South--get it???). Before school started the following Monday, the damage control had already started. The school sanctioned GBS powder puff game was canceled this year.

I'm still a little baffled about how this hazing thing happened for so long before someone finally spoke up. I guess I'll never really understand it. I feel like I live in a community that values its youth and that emphasizes Character. My kids friends are all really great kids: they're involved in the community and take their studies seriously. It's hard for me to imagine parents tolerating a tradition like this for so many years, much less assisting in its logistics.
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Last student sentenced in hazing
Glenbrook reviews task force ideas

By Lisa Black, Tribune staff reporter. Freelance reporter Sean D. Hamill contributed to this report
Published December 2, 2003

The last person facing criminal charges from a brutal hazing last spring involving Glenbrook North High School students pleaded guilty to battery Monday, the same day school board members discussed a task force's recommendations on how to prevent similar violence.

Former student Eliran Maman, 18, of the 3000 block of Lexington Lane, Glenview, admitted he had kicked a junior girl in the head, which was covered by a bucket, as she knelt on the ground during the May 4 melee in Chipilly Woods near Northbrook.

Cook County Circuit Judge Timothy Chambers sentenced Maman in the Skokie courthouse to a year of conditional discharge, a form of court supervision that cannot be expunged from his record.

Maman and his father declined to comment.

"He's glad it's over," said his attorney, Alan Davis. "Most of these kids are really good children who made a mistake and are being punished. The punishment was serious enough that they thought about what they did. Chances are you'll never see 99 percent of them in the legal system again."

Maman was the last of the 16 students found guilty in the hazing, in which seniors at the Northbrook school were videotaped beating juniors at a forest preserve.

Five girls were treated at a hospital; one required 10 stitches in her head, and others had bruises and concussions.

Northfield Township High School District 225 expelled 33 seniors and disciplined 20 juniors after the incident.

The hazing prompted school district and village administrators to form a task force to study how to prevent it from happening again. Organized in June, the group looked at broader teen issues, recommending a communitywide code of civility, additional police training and increased enforcement of current laws.

District 225 board members told administrators Monday night to review the task force's report and decide which portions the district should deal with.

"I think an awful lot of this is outside the purview of this district," said board member Robert Boron, who was on the task force. "Some issues [in the report] have already been addressed through some revised school policies."

Some recommendations in the report may be beyond the district's power because of jurisdictional issues, such as better monitoring of teenage activity in the forest preserves.

"Most of this goes back to the home," said board member Tom Shaer, adding that he did not want the school district "to go hard into an area that is not our responsibility."

Supt. David Hales said the task force suggested that the board decide which recommendations to adopt by mid-April, before the anniversary of the hazing.

The Northbrook Village Board will review the task force's report Dec. 9 and decide whether to push for new laws, officials said.

Most of the students found guilty in the hazing-related battery cases have gone to college and will be eligible to have their records expunged in a year.

Maman has completed 80 hours of community service and been evaluated for alcohol and substance abuse because of earlier charges unrelated to the hazing, Davis said.