It is news… and it has a sensational twist!

By Kim Wilson

Email: kimannwilson@yahoo.com

According to a national survey entitled Initiation Rites in American High Schools conducted by faculty members at Alfred University in New York, hazing is prevalent among American high school students, and all students who join groups are at risk of being hazed. The survey defines hazing as “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.” The survey reports that 48 percent of high school students who belong to groups have been subjected to hazing, and 30 percent have performed potentially illegal acts as part of their group’s initiation.

Based on a sample of articles and transcripts found largely through a Lexis-Nexis search, the press first covered the occurrence of high school hazing in 1981. Since then, and particularly beginning in 1997, coverage of such events has increased. Experts say hazing can be traced back much further than the eighties event though there was no media coverage prior to 1981 based on that sample of coverage. “While high school initiations have existed in some form in the United States for much of the twentieth century, the practices were usually either too minor to be widely reported or school administrations and parents worked to keep the nasty details from being revealed (Nuwer 19).” What supported the increase of coverage that began in 1997? Let’s begin by taking a closer look at the cycle of coverage since high school hazing hit the news in 1981.

A Lexis-Nexis search of major newspapers on the topic high school hazing returns only 11 stories from January 1, 1980, to December 31,1990, with the majority of them appearing in 1988 through 1990. The first story, a brief incident report, appeared in the New York Times on December 4, 1981 in an article titled “Coaches Ousted Over Hazing Rite”. According to the Lexis-Nexis sample, the first television mention of high school hazing occurred on January 1, 1991, on “CBS This Morning”. (It is appropriate to mention that Lexis-Nexis did not begin posting transcripts until the mid-1980s.) From 1991 until 1997, news stories trickled to the public via newspapers, radio and television news. Radio and television mentions were generally brief incident reports that gave the most basic details of the alleged hazing incident. Radio reports were often no more than a couple of sentences. Beginning in 1997, the number of stories increased regarding hazing incidents and including all relative offshoots such as anti-hazing orientations, lawsuits on high school hazing incidents and motivation behind participation in high school hazing rites. Therefore, the focal time frame for this investigation is 1997 through the present.

Prior to 1997, the majority of the articles in the nation’s major newspapers in this sample simply regurgitated the facts of the occasional reported hazing incident. Stories were presented in a straightforward manner similar to the reporting style used on initial stories of crimes like robberies or shootings. Reporters often interviewed the parents of the victims, along with school officials including principals, athletic directors, coaches and superintendents. Rarely did alleged perpetrators or their parents speak with the press so stories consistently lacked the perspective of the “defendants”. One reason is that except in the case of major crimes, journalists don’t usually identify juvenile offenders. Another major reason is that perpetrators may not want to speak up about the incidents, whether that decision is based on personal choice or legal advice. Caroline Clay, reporter for the Herald Times in Bloomington, Indiana, covered a high school hazing incident and says she found herself “faced with the dilemma of being able to understand both sides.”

Reporters uncovered two distinct opposing sentiments amongst school officials. Either officials felt that hazing was hideous and were in favor of zero-tolerance policies, or they felt that the kids involved were just being kids and that no harm was really meant by the activities. On October 15, 1988, Peter Canellos of the Boston Globe reported that the head of the football program at Watertown High School called hazing, “obnoxious, disgusting behavior,” in an article titled “Grid Camp Hazing Shocks Watertown”. In contrast, the Boston Globe quoted a member of the Brockton School Committee on April 5, 1990, saying, “Kids will be kids,” while speaking of a hazing incident in “10 on Track Team Are Suspended”.

The stories’ sentiments didn’t change too much with the increase in coverage beginning in 1997. The volume just increased significantly due to the increase in reported hazing incidents. (The increase in reports will be addressed further in the following pages.) Most stories were the usual incident reports, but there were the occasional investigations into why students participate in these types of activities and there were some in-depth reports done on some incidents. Television produced more in-depth reporting than the newspapers, based on the sample. NBC even used its movie of the week as a forum to discuss hazing in Dying to Belong.

From the beginning and throughout the years, journalists involved in the sample generally took the stance that hazing is a sick and perverse practice and that it should never be tolerated. Journalists used adjectives that revealed their stance. For instance, a story titled “Don’t Be Afraid to Alert Authorities” written by Kevin Dupont of the Boston Globe on October 2, 1990, called alleged hazing acts “debasing and perverse”. Hattie, Kauffman, “CBS This Morning” co-host, called an account of a hazing rite on a soccer team in Lansing, Michigan, “Incredibly strange, but by no means isolated,” on January 1, 1991.

In general, while journalists pointed out the wrongdoing of the hazing perpetrators, they often did not attack the perpetrators too vigorously for their behavior. They focused on how many students involved in incidents really did not think any wrong was done by using quotes from students saying things like, “That was just hazing. They didn’t beat them up,” a quote from an October 3, 1992, article by Gregor Pinney titled “Roosevelt Students Upset that Events were Canceled” in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A headline for Jordana Hart’s article in the Boston Globe from October 8, 1994, “Many High School Students Say Hazing is OK – Within Limits”, illustrates the same thing. Journalists placed more blame on the school officials for not doing enough about the incidents. The following quote speaking of a high school football camp hazing is from the Boston Globe column titled “Town Roiled Over Hazing” by Bella English on November 16, 1992. It highlights the general sentiment of disgust of the journalists over the issue of high school hazing, its perversity and who should be held accountable:

This dirty little secret was aired when some of the macho perpetrators went around bragging about what they did to the younger ones, some of them 13 year olds. ‘Boys will be boys,’ was the way school Superintendent William Fay described the hazing. Fay, by the way, is no longer superintendent, and for good reason, if his conduct in this case is any indicator.

Let’s move on now to why the issue of hazing in high schools appeared in the news in the first place, and more specifically, why it was covered more extensively beginning in 1997. First and foremost, it is news. Hazing incidents in high schools are newsworthy. Gary Powell, a hazing law expert, says, “I think whenever a high school-aged student suffers a serious, needless injury at the expense of some organized high school activity, that injury will be newsworthy. The more ridiculous (and senseless) the actions that led to the injury, the greater the opportunity for interest from the media.” Hazing incidents can have an impact on a community. They present, in some form, a sense of social danger. Plain and simple, many people are interested because they have children or other relatives in the schools where the incidents are being reported. One might even equate hazing to some sort of crime, perhaps assault. District Attorney Michael Callahan said on “20/20 Downtown” on June 1, 2000, “you’re no more of a willing participant than the battered woman is a willing participant in her battering at home.” Crimes and assaults are covered in the news media, so it clearly follows that hazing in high schools would be covered as well. It may seem like the easiest way out for determining why any issue is covered, but in the case of hazing, it is this simple. Linda Murtie, mother of a hazing victim Lizzie Murtie, said the media are simply doing their job by covering the news.

Next, unlike some other social issues, high school hazing has an inherent element of sensationalism. As Pierre Bourdieu says in his book, On Television, there is a push toward covering things that only arouse audience curiosity but do not spur analysis (51). What’s more curious than a senior football player probing a freshman player’s rectum with a broom handle or a freshman kidnap in which the final event is when the seniors throw the freshmen into a lake? Newsday reporter Michael Dobie referenced “allegations that older players stripped younger players, greased them with soap and threw them down dormitory hallways ‘like human bowling balls’ at a summer camp,” in his article, “Hazing: A Rite Gone Wrong,” on December 12, 1999. It’s scandalous. It’s unbelievable even.

Since the increase in the number reported hazing incidents, it naturally follows that coverage of such incidents has increased. This sensationalism can be illustrated by the first sentence of an Associated Press article from December 8, 1993. “Brian Seamons, who went public with his story of a humiliating and painful high school hazing incident, has left Sky View High School out of fear for his safety.” Another Associated Press headline from September 1, 1999, suggests the media’s taste for sensationalism, “Family Says Son’s Suicide Tied to High School Hazing.” Yet another example is that of ABC’s “World News Tonight” dated February 27, 2000. Within the first minute of the transcript, gory details of the incident are recounted. “The student, whose name has not been released, was allegedly hog tied, flung into a wall and stuffed in a locker.”

There are several other reasons offered as to why the issue is gaining more coverage these days. Hank Nuwer, author of several books on hazing and

Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Indiana University in Indianapolis, says one reason is the dissertations doctoral students have produced on hazing in high schools. Alfred University released a study on trends in high school hazing in 1999 and 2000. Some federal and state grants have been made available now for studies targeting hazing. Nuwer published a book in 2000 solely dedicated to the discussion of hazing in high schools called High School Hazing: When Rites Become Wrong. According to Meg Woolhouse, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, national stories are often prompted by local lawsuits that have been picked up by national media and propelled into the spotlight. Anti-hazing organizations have been started, and anti-hazing legislation has been proposed and passed. Forty-two states have anti-hazing laws now. There was even a movie released in 1993, Dazed and Confused, that focused on high school freshmen and their rites of passage. Jay Cerio, Ph.D., Professor of School Psychology and Director of the Child and Family Services Center at Alfred University, says when an issue becomes higher profile among professional groups, the media usually picks it up and transmits it to the public.

All of these things have drawn some attention to the issue, but the consensus amongst hazing experts and others interviewed for this paper is that the first two reasons mentioned earlier are the ones driving the media’s coverage of high school hazing. The inherent newsworthiness and sensationalistic value of high school hazing stories have led the media to cover the topic, especially in recent years.

Next, Richard Sigal, Professor of Sociology at County College of Morris in Randolph, New Jersey, says that the American public has a need to observe deviance voyeuristically and ideally from a distance. Murders are the main form of deviance covered, but other activities like hazing, are covered in the same manner. He goes on to say, “Any angle will be explored by creative journalists seeking the scoop and trying to make a buck.”

Similar to Barbara Nelson’s example of child abuse in her book Making an Issue of Child Abuse, hazing has this added sense of personal and social deviance (66). For instance, the release of the Alfred University study on hazing in 1999 sparked media coverage, but it was just another angle for the same story of sensational accounts of hazing. Deviance is always news, so anything that comes along is fair game. Sigal continues, “The media can always be perceived as a catalyst to additional incidents of whatever type.”

Similarly, Alfred University’s Robert Myers, Professor of Anthropology and Public Health, reaffirmed this claim of the media’s desire for sensationalism when he said the press has been particularly interested in hazing because it offers lurid stories that sell newspapers and gain viewers. The experts interviewed for this paper generally agree that the desire for drama amongst the various media outlets definitely accounts for a portion of the coverage of recent high school hazing incidents. In addition, Myers claims that the fact that so many people have been somehow involved in a hazing incident makes the issue familiar and appealing territory for news coverage. He also says the trends toward more violent and dangerous forms of hazing and some recent close calls have triggered more media attention. As Myers said, “It is a valid, important social issue,” so it should draw coverage.

As Powell notes, hazing has traditionally been associated with colleges and universities, and typically in fraternities and sororities. The trickle down of incidents into high schools sparks many new questions, all of which can be investigated and reported on with a bit of sensationalism. After all, we now can document hazing rites that have occurred amongst young teen girls on pom-pom and cheerleading squads (Nuwer 33). Rita Saucier, founder of Cease Hazing Activities & Deaths (C.H.A.D), said, “The true horror of these barbaric, abusive and disgusting acts of abuse that are being perpetrated on our children in the name of ‘friendship’, ‘loyalty’, and ‘brotherhood’ is incomprehensible to intelligent law-abiding adults.” For instance, on March 28, 2000, National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” tells of things students do in order to fit in. “Younger and younger children are beating each other, making each other drink dangerous amounts of hard liquor and engaging in uncomfortable sexual acts, all in rituals meant to establish group bonding.”

There’s another reason suggested for the growth in high school hazing coverage. Hazing at the collegiate level has been a hot topic for years due to the some high profile cases in which the hazing victims actually died. Maureen Syring, a recently retired sorority executive, says that while dealing with the issue of college hazing, someone finally asked where this type of behavior originated. Is it a learned behavior developed in college or is it behavior that high school students have experienced and assume to be an important rite of passage? The idea that hazing could be occurring in American high schools sparked research which discovered many college students had experienced hazing during high school in groups like bands, honor societies, clubs and sports. This, in turn, sparked media coverage. It was like a mutation to the rule. Society had grown accustomed to hearing tales of fraternity hazing, but thinking of high school students performing similar rituals was disturbing. The younger they are, the harder it is to believe. It’s more perverse. It’s sensationalism at its “finest”.

Along the same lines, Cerio claims that the rise of high school hazing as a hot topic is the natural downward extension of college hazing stories. He says, “specifically, some high profile stories on hazing of athletes sensitized the media to the pervasiveness of the issue and led them to look at other teen group situations that stimulate hazing behavior.” It was an obvious progression from coverage of college hazing incidents to show how kids even younger were already engaged in similar behavior. After all, as mentioned earlier, hazing in high schools is newsworthy since the issue is one that can have an affect on the lives of many audience members.

Next, it is impossible to do a thorough examination of the motivation of the media to cover incidents of high school hazing without mentioning the recent school shootings that have rocked the nation. In February of 1997, a shooting at a junior high school in Lake Moses, Washington, left three dead. In December of 1997 Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, suffered the loss of three in a shooting. There were five deaths as a result of a shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas in March of 1998, two deaths at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, and15 deaths associated with the shooting at Columbine High School in April of 1999. At Columbine, the issue of mental bullying came up as a potential motive for the shooters, which led media directly back to the topic of hazing.

The issue of safety in the schools became a hot topic. Larry Greil, Professor of Sociology and Health Policy at Alfred University, says, “the Columbine killings as well as a general unease about the state of American youth play a major role in the media’s response to the Alfred University study.” The shootings sparked interest and raised awareness to the issues of violence and mental abuse in schools. Cerio says the shootings “sensitized parents, school personnel and the public at large to any kind of potentially dangerous teen behavior.” He goes on to say that these sensational tragedies have held the media’s attention longer and have “led the press to cast a wider net in their coverage of hazing.” Hazing in high schools is just another spin-off of negative incidents occurring in schools, and it is a natural offshoot that falls under the umbrella of violence and school safety issues. Like Sigal says, each story promotes more coverage of the others. Again, the media’s desire for sensationalism plays a role in the ongoing coverage of the issue. The following table illustrates the change in newspaper coverage of high school hazing activities following the outbreak of school shootings. The table is based on the number of hits received during a Lexis-Nexis search from 1980 to 2000 of major U.S. newspapers for high school hazing.

YEAR # OF ARTICLES

1980 - 1990	30
1991	11
1992	32
1993	20
1994	29
1995	24
1996	28
1997	65
1998	63
1999	75
2000 (1/1 – 10/31)	73

As you can see, the number of articles in major U.S. newspapers more than doubled from 1996 to 1997 and have maintained that higher level of coverage since then.

Norman J. Pollard, Ed. D., Director of the Counseling and the Student Development Center at Alfred University and co-author of Alfred’s recent study, notes that in his experience with news media, the most common request he receives is for actual footage of a hazing incident. He claims the depth of coverage in hazing stories is superficial and that journalists are mostly interested in creating a sensational story. Various reporters have interviewed Pollard at length, but he usually finds the final news product lacking in substance. The print media doesn’t seem to get much further than the report of the facts of the incident and two or three quotes. He says there’s no real investigative reporting being done on the subject. So, again it is suggested that sensationalism plays a role in driving the news media’s coverage of high school hazing incidents.

In contrast, the Murties have had what they described as very pleasant and rewarding interaction with the press. Lizzie was a freshman member of Essex High School’s gymnastics team in Vermont when she was hazed. Lizzie and her mother Linda never once felt that the journalists they spoke with were after the most sensational story. In fact, the feel the media have treated them, especially Lizzie, with the utmost compassion and respect. Lizzie says the journalists she worked with did a great job of capturing her story and were sincere in their concern for her feelings and for the seriousness of the issue as a whole. One interview Lizzie did for CBS News Special Report was titled “High School Hazing: Pervasive, Cruel”. This is one of several reports Lizzie participated in that illustrated the seriousness of the issue. The Murties truly believe the media have been doing their job by reporting on high school hazing incidents. Saucier agrees, “I think journalists have been sympathetic to the victims and realistic in their assessment of this problem.”

Nuwer says that the onslaught of incidents have drawn the media’s attention. There have been numerous sodomies in high school athletic hazing rites. (It is also appropriate to mention that the news media of today are much more liberal as far as the subject matter reported than even 20 years ago. Many subjects reported on today would have been considered taboo. It’s worth mentioning, but this point could be the subject of its own paper.) When reported, the drama draws attention. Saucier says the seriousness of recent incidents has really brought the issue to light because it illustrates that hazing activities are no longer just silly pranks. She says more students are getting hurt due to the abusive and life-threatening nature of the rites. Nuwer claims, “One thing is clear: hazing has grown more brutal (35).”

Now let’s touch on the increase in reports of hazing rites in high schools. Hazing is usually done in private, so often times no one outside of those present for the incident will know anything about it unless there is a death, a mass arrest or the like. Not to mention, as McFeely points out, “School districts are very secretive, they say to protect students, but actually it is to protect their jobs and reputations.” Dan McFeely, a reporter for the Indianapolis Star, claims that 20 or 30 years ago, the practices of physical discipline and corporal punishment were more socially accepted than they are now so there was really no story to cover then.

Naturally, the ramp up of occurrences, media coverage and the recent school shootings have encouraged more students to come forward to report their own experiences that are humiliating, dangerous and often times sexual and assaultive. Those interviewed for this paper generally agree that extreme cases of violence in schools like the Columbine shooting raised awareness amongst students as well as parents. So, safety in the school is on the minds of high school students and has made them more likely to report violent hazing behavior before it gets out of hand. The severity of some ritual beatings and alcohol-related activities has made the incidents hard to ignore. The victims have a tougher time keeping the rites a secret when they are bruised, bleeding or highly intoxicated when they get home on initiation night.

In sum, it is easy to deduce that a higher volume of reported incidents generates more stories based on the belief that the news media have a duty to report the news and that they are also a bit slanted toward the inherent potential sensationalism of the hazing issue. Student journalists at Avon High School near Indianapolis, Indiana, told McFeely they felt the reporters were being good watch dogs by trying to open society’s eyes to the actual harm being done to students who fall victim to hazing incidents. For instance, “Above the Pressure to Belong,” an article in the Christian Science Monitor on September 21, 2000, Myers brings to light in the lead some of the things students are doing to fit in. “High school students feel such a strong need to “fit in” that they allow themselves to be publicly embarrassed, go without food or sleep, engage in drinking contests, use illegal drugs, vandalize property, or suffer beatings or rape.”

Moving on, it’s worthwhile to mention the organizations that have had at least some influence on getting the message regarding the seriousness of hazing out to the media and the public in general. While Myers and others don’t think any of the following organizations are vigorously pushing the topic on the media, they are raising awareness on some level. Sigal notes the benchmark college hazing case at Alfred University when student Chuck Stenzel died as a result of a hazing rite. “His mother (Eileen Stevens) cranked up the visibility by starting an anti-hazing organization (Committee to Halt Useless College Hazings, C.H.U.C.K.) and supporting anti-hazing legislation,” says Sigal. Nadine Hoover, Director of Human Development Consulting for Alfred University, says , “C.H.U.C.K. has been talking about preventing hazing for 20 years. I think her (Stevens’) work has really made a difference.“ Hoover goes on to say that Stevens has set the groundwork so that when headlines hit regarding high school hazing, they now hit with force. Saucier adds, “C.H.U.C.K. and Hank Nuwer’s continuous crusade against hazing have helped tremendously to make people aware of hazing.”

Saucier talks of her experience with her own organization, C.H.A.D. “I fight for media attention continuously,” she says. For example, in 1997 Saucier purchased a billboard alongside a heavily traveled highway leading to a vacation area. She also writes letters to newspapers, including student newspapers, and speaks anywhere she is invited. But, Saucier believes that in order to really accomplish something on a larger scale in the way of hazing, the small organizations need to ban together and form a strong national organization. That will up the likelihood of making a larger impact.

Nuwer mentions other groups such as Security on Campus and Internet groups like Private School Forum that began publicizing hazing. He also says trade magazines for school boards, coaches and others began publishing their own insights around 1999. Nuwer thinks C.H.U.C.K. and C.H.A.D. have played a substantial role in educating the media as to the gravity of high school hazing. Safe Schools and web sites like www.stophazing.org have also become important resources for journalists. Stophazing's discussion groups have allowed concerned parents to connect with activists, educators and journalists. For the most part, the organizations have focused more on education than publicity. 

Finally, let’s discuss how the media outlets framed the issue. Based on the articles and transcripts, my conclusion is that the media framed hazing in high schools as a social/educational issue. Next, as I mentioned earlier, the stories generally told an account of the events. But, they also did not just place the blame on the perpetrators. While the perpetrators were admonished and punished for their behavior, the school officials were also held accountable because they were unaware of what was occurring, or if they were aware, they did nothing to stop it.

So, blame has also been placed on the school officials in charge of the groups involved such as coaches, choir/band directors, athletic directors, principals and other administrators. Schools have even been sued, in addition to the perpetrators, such as noted in the Baltimore Sun on May 11, 1994, regarding a $1 million hazing lawsuit filed against the school on the grounds that the school allowed her son to be hazed by Michael James and Lem Satterfield. A more recent lawsuit is that of a mother of a Calhoun County high school student who was victim of a hazing incident against school employees noted in an Associated Press article dated September 24, 1999 regarding the lawsuit in “Mother of Hazing Victim Files Lawsuit Against State, County”.

In some instances, the suggestion of blame is subtle as illustrated by this headline “Mother accuses East Texas high school of hazing” of an Associated Press article from August 17, 1998. While in this case, the finger is not specifically pointed at any particular school official, it also does not point the finger at the student perpetrators. Another article by Bella English in the Boston Globe dated November 3, 1993 notes, “the school calls it a proud tradition.” Yet in the Baltimore Sun article by James and Satterfield mentioned in the previous paragraph, the journalist quotes the school headmaster’s words in a letter calling hazing “good-natured, not mean spirited”. This particular quote, like many others in various articles and transcripts, falls in the midst of a paragraph describing the rage of a parent over the hazing of her child. In an October 17, 1997, editorial titled “Thugs at Overland High” in the Denver Rocky Mountain News places blame on the high school principal by stating, “And yet Principal John Buckner didn’t think enough of these assaults to report them immediately to district officials.”

The social issue side of the problem arose as reporters uncovered incidents where the students involved in the hazing actually didn’t realize the gravity of their own actions. They didn’t know how wrong it was to subject other students to certain activities. Sigal says societal norms have become cloudy and that young people are uncertain of the limits on topics like drugs, sex, alcohol and violence. Students don’t see the lines because the norms are so vague now.

Like Pollard says, students in this day and age lack continuity in their lives so they are looking for groups and ways to belong and fit in. Hazing and initiations are viewed as rites of passage that build bonds. So, the students organize an activity that they truly believe is for the spirit of teambuilding, but they end up with problematic ideas perpetuated by examples set in hazing incidents performed in previous years.

On top of that, adults in some communities reinforced the perception that hazing was acceptable by telling stories about how they were hazed in high school and how they survived. Often, adults even took the stance that boys will be boys and kids will be kids. Syring says parents in particular don’t want to interfere with their child’s desire to belong and the means by which he/she will achieve that desire.

There are certainly other ways the issue could have been framed. The media could have taken a look at parenting and adopted the stance that it is the lack of parental guidance that affects the students’ failing recognition of right and wrong. Or, the media could have focused strictly on the social developmental issue of how teens have such a great desire to identify with peer groups. Also, as Cerio mentioned, it could have taken another twist in the realm of the social issue and pointed out that adults haze. For instance, the dissertation process for doctoral students can be considered hazing—a rite of passage. So, teens see the hypocrisy in being told not to do something that adults are doing. The media could have also looked at hazing from a legal standpoint based on the federal and state laws against it. Finally, it could have been considered a public health issue in relation to safety of teens who are already considered a high-risk group.

To summarize, consensus finds that the media’s attraction to he issue of hazing is twofold. First, the issue of hazing in high schools is news and the media have an obligation as journalists to report the news. Second, the inherent sensationalism of the topic naturally makes it a hotter topic amongst media outlets. The media want to sell papers and generate ratings. While reporting the news that affects the audience sells paper and generates ratings, we cannot ignore how the American public’s desire to view deviance feeds the fire for sensationalism. Besides the honest seriousness, and therefore newsworthiness, of the issue, hazing in high schools fits perfectly into the category of perverse deviance, so it is consistently covered. It has been framed in two ways. The media suggest that the school systems are at least partially to blame for the breakdown of rules and security that allows hazing incidents to occur. It also looks at the social climate and how students, particularly teens, possess a great desire to belong to a group. That desire then leads them directly to the initiations and rites of passage that are often times accepted by community adults due to their own experiences or due to fear of interfering with their child’s sense of belonging. Overall, the media consistently reports hazing as a serious social issue occurring in American high schools that needs to be addressed.

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