High school hazing on The Early Show - Page 11

momoftwo · #1 05-12-2003, 02:52 PM

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.

LXAAlum · #2 05-12-2003, 05:25 PM

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.

AXJules · #3 05-12-2003, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by momoftwo
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.

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.

DeltAlum · #4 05-12-2003, 05:54 PM

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

AXJules · #5 05-12-2003, 05:58 PM

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

"

LXAAlum · #6 05-12-2003, 07:06 PM

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.

DeltAlum · #7 05-13-2003, 12:57 AM

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.

momoftwo · #8 05-13-2003, 09:18 AM

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."

damasa · #9 05-13-2003, 10:10 AM

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?

adduncan · #10 05-13-2003, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by damasa
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!"

sugar and spice · #11 05-13-2003, 10:29 AM

Not to mention the fact that a ten-day suspension at the end of your senior year is hardly a punishment. Ten days off of school when you're facing the worst part of senioritis? That's not a punishment, that's practically a reward.

texas*princess · #12 05-13-2003, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by damasa
Originally posted by damasa
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?

oh no

snuggles12 · #13 05-13-2003, 11:16 AM

Did anyone see The Today Show? The father of #24 was on TV and claimed that the 10 day suspension was too harsh and would ruined his daughter's life. Of course the Today Show, showed a clip of his precious #24 daughter roughing up some girls. Now we know why some children are messed up. There should be a law that in order to be a parent, you must have a license. His comment is right up there with the little girl stating, "so a couple of girls got 100 stitches, it's like no one died". I'm sure her parents are proud of her.

AZpinkkittie · #14 05-13-2003, 11:31 AM

when I heard about that suit I nearly choked. There can't be a single Judge alive that would stomach that in their court...is there?? You caused physical damage to multiple people!! It was caught on tape!! They had to recieve serious medical attention for broken bones and serious cuts!!! You shoved feces into students mouths and beat them baseball bats for PETES SAKE!!!!!!!!!! Im surprised they didn't expell your ass!!!!!!!!!

moe.ron · #15 05-13-2003, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by snuggles12
Did anyone see The Today Show? The father of #24 was on TV and claimed that the 10 day suspension was too harsh and would ruined his daughter's life. Of course the Today Show, showed a clip of his precious #24 daughter roughing up some girls. Now we know why some children are messed up. There should be a law that in order to be a parent, you must have a license. His comment is right up there with the little girl stating, "so a couple of girls got 100 stitches, it's like no one died". I'm sure her parents are proud of her.

WHAT? He's lucky that she hasn't been indicted with battery or some other charges. If I was the parents of the kids that was victimized, I would definately be talking to my lawyers right now and make sure that those kids will be paying my kids education straight to medical or law school.