Wrenching interview with Wilson High mom, video attached
August 20th, 2008
Serious allegations plague small New Mexico community
August 19th, 2008
This one is particularly upsetting to me. I went to grad school in tiny Las Vegas almost 40 years ago, a quiet, friendly town
ESPN looks at Wilson case on Outside the Lines Sunday
August 19th, 2008
Duke hazing update–Alpha Delta Phi pledge claims seizures
August 14th, 2008
A Duke University student who claims he needed hospital care after a hazing incident during a fraternity event plans to file a complaint before a magistrate.
Student Daniel Klufas, of Easton, Conn., and his family have hired a lawyer and private investigator since the incident.
“Nobody else is willing to come forward to say anything except for me,” Klufas said.
On April 25, Klufas said brothers in Alpha Delta Phi, the fraternity he was pledging, made him take off his clothes while they threw cold water on him, according to attorney, Stephan E. Seeger of Stamford, Conn.
“It resulted in me having seizures, going into shock, hyperventilating,” Klufas said.
Klufas said the incident caused him to end up at Duke Hospital for treatment.
St Albert update
August 14th, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Fourteen Edmonton-area teens are facing dozens of assault charges after they allegedly used broken goalie sticks and cricket bats in a series of violent and bloody high-school hazing attacks earlier this year.
RCMP allege the teens “paddled” their eight victims, causing bruising and even bleeding to their victims’ upper legs and buttocks.
The accused youths, all now 16 years old, each face at least one charge of assault with a weapon. One of the young men is facing four assault charges, and another faces the more serious charge of assault causing bodily harm.
They made their first court appearance Aug. 5, and are scheduled to go before a judge again Sept. 2. They cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
In a press release issued Tuesday, Cpl. Ted Soltys of the St. Albert RCMP said the alleged attacks took place between mid-May and late June.
“The victims alleged they were taken to various locations in and around St. Albert, where anywhere from a couple of paddles to up to 30 paddles were inflicted upon them in varying degrees of force,” Soltys wrote.
St. Albert school officials said the alleged hazings occurred during the exam period in June, and the teens allegedly attacked their victims near a local business, not on school property.
“This type of behaviour is truly physical assault, and it is a criminal assault,” Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools superintendent Jerry Zimmer said of the hazing practices.
“Basically, they take some sort of handmade paddle, sometimes they use a hockey stick . . . and they stop and they physically assault an individual by hitting them on the buttocks, lower back or legs,” he said.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
Authorities frothing over Canada froshing–more assault charges
August 14th, 2008
August 14, 2008
Edmonton — School officials are hoping assault charges against 14 Edmonton-area teenagers who are accused of assaulting younger children with hockey sticks and cricket bats will help raise awareness about such violence.
RCMP allege the accused, who are now all 16 and live in the bedroom community of St. Albert, paddled eight younger children in May and June.
Their injuries ranged from some reddening of the buttocks, to bruises and bleeding.
Dave Caron, chairman of the Catholic school board in St. Albert, says the charges could help convey to students that such incidents are considered assault and not a fun hazing ritual.
Hazing only part of it. Player claims brutal assault in South Carolina
August 14th, 2008
When he came to, he said he was lying on his stomach with his wrists and ankles taped tightly.
Sgt. Jeff Skidmore of the State Police’s Grantsville detachment said troopers are looking into the matter and are still taking statements from witnesses.
Calhoun County Schools Superintendent Jane Lynch declined to comment on the matter, saying an investigation is underway.
Sherry Patterson, Mitchell’s mother, said her son has played football ever since he was able — except for taking a season off last year to work with her in a carpet store.
But after Thursday’s incident, she said her son has quit football for good. The family is in the process of transferring their children to a school out of the county.
“He’s terrified,” she said. “He’s almost a shell of the person he used to be.”
Sherry said other teammates had been teasing Mitchell — a free safety — throughout the practice that day, stuffing dirty socks and underwear beneath his pads.
Sherry said Mitchell, a junior, called her on his cell phone in the midst of this and talked about quitting the team because of the bullying.
The team broke for lunch in the gymnasium. After lunch, Mitchell went into the weight room and sat on a bench, she said.
One of the boys that had been teasing Mitchell walked in and sat beside him, offering his hand as if to apologize, his mother said. At that point, another player — whom Sherry said is 18-years-old — allegedly came up from behind and got Mitchell in a chokehold.
Mitchell told his mother one of the boys said, “That’s what you get for running your smart mouth.”
The FAMU case, redux
August 10th, 2008
Moderator: Here are a few wise observations by a friend named Dave who has kindly supplied the following comments with regard to the Florida A & M retrial, after the judge was ruled by an appeals court to have erred in not offering the jury a wider definition of injury sustained by the victim in the case, Marcus Jones
- It is not unusual for there to be some reversals and remands for cases decided under relatively new legislation. No matter how carefully legislators and others wordsmith and craft statutory language, the real test comes at the trial court level.
- It appears to me from the articles that the appellate court was very specific in its ruling about the jury instructions. Instructions are a very valid basis for appeal. In most criminal cases the instructions have been standardized and published. Any variation from those is frowned upon and most of the judges I practiced before were very careful to follow the standard instructions. If one side or the other wanted to expand or elaborate upon the instructions, that could be done but only after review beforehand. It was not clear to me here if there were standardized instructions or if the trial court “Freelanced” with the language. If she did freelance, then the reversal is understandable. And, reversals occur with jury instructions because of the significant impact or effect the instructions have upon jurors.
- As usual, each decision these days prompts a reaction from counsel–the proverbial “Can you can top this?” While the defense attorneys for the civil cases are correct in noting that a reversal of the criminal cases means that the convictions cannot be used at this time, the plaintiffs certainly have an advantage in terms of case preparation–they now have a lot of evidence, much of the work has been done for them, and they have witnesses on the record (under oath). The fact that the criminal case was reversed has no effect upon prior testimony under oath being used, especially in cross examination. I don’t recall if the defendants took the stand in the criminal case, but if they did, that testimony can be used to impeach them at the civil trial.
- It is my hope that the prosecutor will pursue the cases again. It is usually easier to obtain a conviction the second time around–witnesses are more comfortable in the courtroom, attorneys know what will be said (in general) and most of the key objections and issues have been decided.
Excerpt:
The legal papers do not identify Wilson school officials by name, only referring to them as district “representatives.”
More detailed accusations about what happened on the bus ride — as well as what some school district officials knew about all the incidents and when — are contained in the papers, obtained by The Buffalo News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Among them:
• Four adults, including coaches, were on the bus at the time of the attack. Coaches were told about violent behavior before the April bus trip was over, as well as after the team arrived back in Wilson. The player who asked school personnel to intervene did so while standing beside one of the victims in a school parking lot — but no further action was taken.
• One of the victims was attacked on the team bus on the way back from a game in Albion five days later. He already was one of two students who had become specific targets of hazing and other violence by varsity players.
• A school official observed less severe incidents last year, then told the players to go back to their seats on the bus. For discipline, extra running was doled out at practice.
“The notice of claim speaks for itself,” said Terrence M. Connors, an attorney for the families of two alleged victims.
This year’s attack involved a varsity player sitting on the first victim’s chest to restrain him, while he was beaten and a cell phone was inserted into his rectum, the legal papers claim.
The second victim also was restrained, beaten and had “what felt like multiple fingers” inserted into his rectum, the papers said.
The player who was sodomized with the bat last year said he participated in this year’s attack “because things like that happened to me before,” according to the notice of claim.
He also admitted using a cell phone in this year’s sexual assault, the document claims.
It also claims the father of the victim- turned-attacker called a school representative after the baseball bat incident last year, and players were told to run extra laps at practice as discipline.
Ragging reforms taking hold in India
August 9th, 2008
Moderator's note: As moderator, I'll publish all relevant news stories, letters from activists, pro-hazing letters, and opinion pieces. Although hazing in fraternities, high schools, bands, camp, the military and overseas groups is a hot-button issue, civility is expected. If a letter needs editing for grammar or clarity, I'll edit and return for the letter writer's approval if an email address is attached. BIO: Hank Nuwer is the editor of The Hazing Reader (Indiana University Press) and High School Hazing (Grolier/Scholastic). My website is http://hazing.hanknuwer.com.
