High school hazing on The Early Show

[White_Chocolate]

these girls will make such great parents
gosh, i can't wait until their children arrive
that's if some junior girl doesn't walk up in a classroom and blow them away

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally posted by LXAAlum
Fox News was reporting that many of these girls that have been accepted to the University of Illinois may have their

Good for us!

[AXJules2]

Here i am using my alternate screename on my parents decrepid computer....got home tonite for the summer. It is so good to be back!! However, I couldn't park anywhere near my house b/c of all the newstrucks. Dad was not pleased about that one.

Sorry if the links didnt work...basically these people went to Cancun for a week. Their son's friend was watching the house, and one of HIS friends saw the garage code and held a party for a couple days. It was videotaped and the kids were driving the parents' mercedes, doing cocaine in the house, and now the police are filing sexual assault charges, although no one will elaborate on that. The people came home (after a worried neighbor called them) and found blood (???) condoms and porn all over the place, along with their handguns missing.
Two incidents happened like this in Wheaton and Hinsdale, which are about an hr from Northbrook if you take the expressway and traffic is good.

That Marnie girl has balls (and stupidity). If I got expelled a month prior for drinking, you can bet that
A) my father would have planted me in the backyard underneath our Maple tree
B) I would be on my best behavior
and C) even if I didnt' act like an angel, I WOULD HAVE STAYED FAR AWAY FROM FECAL MATTER AND BEATING JUNIOR GIRLS!!

[DeltAlum]

If it were me, I'd take the deal:

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (May 20) - Thirty-one students accused in a videotaped hazing have been offered a deal to graduate on time if they won't fight expulsion or try to exploit the widely publicized incident with a book or movie deal.

Glenbrook North High School officials say some of the students are considering the offer, which also requires the students to attend counseling and perform community service. School board attorney Lawrence Weiner said they would be expelled but the school would freeze their grades at their previous levels instead of automatically flunking them.

''They'll graduate with their class,'' he said.

School officials have suspended the 31 students over a May 4 flag football game where students were beaten, splattered with paint and hit with mud and feces. In addition, Cook County prosecutors have charged 15 students with misdemeanor battery. The hazing was videotaped and widely shown on television.

The offer came up Monday at the court hearing of Marnie Holz, one of the students suing to overturn her suspension. School officials had notified the 31 students of the offer in writing.

Attorneys for some of the students appealing suspensions, including Holz's attorney, Larry Kaplan, said they would reject the offer. Kaplan said his client is suing for reinstatement and would not sign the deal ''as a matter of principle.''

''For one thing, we believe the school exceeded its clear authority,'' he said. ''We believe Marnie was punished for conduct which the school has accepted and tolerated for 23 years.''

He said the expulsion would cause ''irreparable harm'' despite the school's promise not to release disciplinary records to colleges.

Steven Decker, attorney for two suspended girls - one of them among the 15 charged with battery - said his clients likely would reject the offer. He said the school is ''just trying to save face.''

The school initially said it had suspended 32 students because of the hazing but acknowledged Monday that it had misidentified one of the four boys suspended.

''He was allowed right back in school,'' school district spokeswoman Diane Freeman said. ''He didn't miss a beat.''

AP-NY-05-20-03 1028EDT

[texas*princess]

my .02

Originally posted by DeltAlum

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (May 20) - Thirty-one students accused in a videotaped hazing have been offered a deal to graduate on time if they won't fight expulsion or try to exploit the widely publicized incident with a book or movie deal.

Ok, I thought it was bad enough that the parents of these kids were fighting expulsion since the kids did participate in one way or another... but now they're trying to exploit the incident with book/movie deals?! Yea, I can see the previews now ....

Glenbrook North High School officials say some of the students are considering the offer, which also requires the students to attend counseling and perform community service. School board attorney Lawrence Weiner said they would be expelled but the school would freeze their grades at their previous levels instead of automatically flunking them.

I think this is a very generous offer considering what they did... which is nice for them right? but yet some families are STILL fighting it? Ungrateful.

The offer came up Monday at the court hearing of Marnie Holz, one of the students suing to overturn her suspension. School officials had notified the 31 students of the offer in writing.

Attorneys for some of the students appealing suspensions, including Holz's attorney, Larry Kaplan, said they would reject the offer. Kaplan said his client is suing for reinstatement and would not sign the deal ''as a matter of principle.''

''For one thing, we believe the school exceeded its clear authority,'' he said. ''We believe Marnie was punished for conduct which the school has accepted and tolerated for 23 years.''

Ok, another problem here.. from what I understand (thanks to AXJules) the school has NOT accepted or tolerated this behavior for 23 years. From what was told to us, the "football game" never got to the point where girls were sent to the hospital, girls were being beaten with bats, buckets and whatever else, and having feces mashed in their faces. So how can you compare the past 23 years to this year?! That doesn't make sense. Like someone on this thread mentioned, this was definately premediated.. you don't just go to the store and get feces at the spur of the moment.

He said the expulsion would cause ''irreparable harm'' despite the school's promise not to release disciplinary records to colleges.

tough cookies. the girls should have thought about the "irrepairable harm" before they started mashing other girls in the face. The seniors are darn lucky if they school promised not to release disciplinary records... it's really too bad they're too stubborn to see it.

Steven Decker, attorney for two suspended girls - one of them among the 15 charged with battery - said his clients likely would reject the offer. He said the school is ''just trying to save face.''

I would like to ask Mr. Decker how the school is trying to save face by giving this very generous offer to girls that didn't exactly do their school proud???

[sugar and spice]

If I was the school, I wouldn't worry too much about the movie and book deals. I mean, is there any way that these kids can come off WELL even if they do sell their story to a scriptwriter? Either they'll come off as thugs, immature snivelling brats trying to justify completely unjustifiable behavior, or, at best, the poor little rich kids whose lack of/too much attention from parents caused them to lash out. My guess is that any one of these kids who tries to get a movie or book deal out of this thing will get what's coming to them.

On that note, I am sick of living in a world where the ability to find a legal loophole counts for more than any common sense or decency.

[Tom Earp]

I hope they spank their little Sophmoric Asses and dicsipline them to the fullest extent!

What they did was and is criminal, plain and simple!

This was not much fun for the Juniors who had this done to them!

I would like to put these dumbassed parents in the same position as these poor girls!

But of course, it is never the parents fault, they just did no know! BS, BS!

Just put yourselves in their shoes!

Plain and simple, I was hazed in my first college and had my head half shaved by the Jocks because I did not wear my Frosh beanie one night! Head shaved in front of the entire student body on the lawn of the Ad Min building!


Broke that rule and no one had to wear a beanie again! Thank You!!!!!

[RedRoseSAI]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
If I was the school, I wouldn't worry too much about the movie and book deals. I mean, is there any way that these kids can come off WELL even if they do sell their story to a scriptwriter? Either they'll come off as thugs, immature snivelling brats trying to justify completely unjustifiable behavior, or, at best, the poor little rich kids whose lack of/too much attention from parents caused them to lash out.

I think GBN would rather not be the subject of an NBC Monday Night Movie, regardless of how it or its students are portrayed.

[DeltAlum]

Originally posted by RedRoseSAI
I think GBN would rather not be the subject of an NBC Monday Night Movie, regardless of how it or its students are portrayed.

I wouldn't think that the students involved would want to be the subject either. Nobody can look good in this situation.

The only people who will see any upside from this are the ones who have "Esquire" after their names.

[33girl]

Originally posted by RedRoseSAI
I think GBN would rather not be the subject of an NBC Monday Night Movie, regardless of how it or its students are portrayed.

Even if it was they wouldn't use the real name - they would change it to Willow Glen East or something. That's what they did w/ the Death of a Cheerleader movie since it was overall fairly critical of the community and school.

[momoftwo]

Up until now, I've been supportive of the GBN's handling of their hazing incident. I'm not sure how I feel about this development...

Students who were hazed punished by school
May 21, 2003 — Some suburban Chicago teens who were on the receiving end of a violent hazing incident are also facing punishment.
School officials at Glenbrook North High School say some juniors who were covered with muck during the videotaped hazing were suspended from the prom and extracurricular activities.

School spokeswoman Diane Freeman says the school is still investigating and no final action has been taken.

The high school district's school board is scheduled to meet Sunday to decide whether to expel seniors who took part in the May Fourth incident. The school has already suspended the 31 students. Fifteen seniors also have been charged with misdemeanor battery in the case.

Videotape of the event shows the juniors from the school in suburban Northbrook being beaten and showered with mud, paint, feces and garbage.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[33girl]

Many GLO hazing policies state something like "just as hazing someone is illegal, it is illegal to allow yourself to be hazed." They are following this precedent.

[KappaStargirl]

I know I'm late getting to this, but I just read the entire thread and had to put in my $.02 regarding GBN as "one of the top five high schools in Illinois."

I grew up not far from GBN, and heard a lot about it since I had friends there, and a friend of my mother's taught in the school district. It all has to do with money. A lot of the parents who have kids that go to GBN say it is the best. My parents think that the best high school in Illinois is Maine East, moved to Niles when I was little so that they would be in the Maine school district, and would never have sent me or my sisters to GBN even if someone bought them a house in Northbrook. Sure, GBN has more money than ME. It (probably) has more books per student, more money to spend, better technological and athletic facilities, a lower pregnancy rate, and a higher percentage of students who go on to college. However, my parents said that they would never pull me or my sisters out of Maine East, even if we had the chance to go to New Trier or one of the Glenbrook schools, because Maine East had what my parents valued above all else: a student population that is the most diverse of any high school in Illinois. They would not feel "lucky" to live on the North Shore, or have their kids at GBN, because that's not what they want. My parents feel lucky to have had the opportunity to send their kids to ME, because the diverse student population was more important to them than the high SAT scores. (Maine East's academics are plenty rigorous for those who want them.)

Overall, ME students score low on the SAT because a large percentage of the school speaks English as a second language. Are the students less bright and less likely to perform well in the grand scheme of life? Absolutely not. They're just as smart as everyone else. I take the "top high school" title with a grain of salt, because a school with more money is going to be able to participate in more events that will get them noticed, and turn out higher reading and math scores, etc. Though I may not have attended a "top" high school, I learned some of the most important life lessons while attending ME. I didn't get out of high school and see a world that didn't match my life experiences. I was never pressured to attend a four-year college, or once I decided to go to college, I was never pressured to attend a certain school. GBN is not better than ME, nor is ME inherently better than GBN. It all depends on what you want out of a school.

"The best" is completely a matter of perspective. It shouldn't be based on money, or the number of students attending four-year colleges after graduation (not all kids want to go to a four-year college right after graduation). The bottom line is that rankings like that are all about money, which I believe is not completely fair. I can see why a hazing incident like this one would happen at GBN, because there is so much pressure put on the students to succeed, and they're not always taught (again, I am NOT talking about every single student in the school) how to handle conflict and pressure in a healthy way. Could an incident like this happen at ME? Absolutely. It could happen anywhere with the right combination of people. I don't find it shocking that it happened at GBN, though I am saddened by the incident...and I have also now taken up more than my fair share of space on this thread.

[XOMichelle]

Whatever happened to the good old Laboratory School? lol.... I think the point is that the kids in these school districts are generally better off than the greater population, and should have the resources around them to be told not do do such things.

[DGMarie]

Last week on the local chicago news show they had one of the girls accused (Marnie Holz I think). Her response to the hazing: "We didn't do anything more than what had been done to us." Cut to scene of parents smiling nearby.

Lovely.

And when this all started they had another accused girl on who was full of attitude: "We appologized already. What more do they want?"

I think a year in juvi hall for assault.

And then there was the dad of an accused girl at a school board meeting saying: "My little girl made a mistake. Nobody is pefect."

Really, too bad everyone cannot see the local feeds which really give a flavor to the one sided point of view of some of these parents.