How to End All Sports Team Hazing - Physical and Sexual

[MineralMan]

It's incredibly simple: Immediate suspensions without pay for all coaches and staff members of the teams where such hazing occurs. Immediate. The instant such an incident is reported, the entire staff is removed from duty, summarily. This should apply to all school sports involving minors, but also to collegiate and even professional teams. The moment such hazing is discovered, everyone is suspended without pay. Reviews and appeals can happen later. It's so simple.

Too much of this kind of "masculine rite of passage" crap is fostered, openly or tacitly, by the adults in charge. They went through it, so it's "part of the team experience." That was always bullshit, and remains bullshit. It's physical and sexual assault and battery. It's that simple. The very idea that it's OK to do that as some sort of "initiation" or "ritual" is simply wrong. It has always been wrong. It's also illegal. Physical and sexual attacks are crimes.

This hazing cannot exist without the permission of the adults who are in charge of the teams. That permission may appear to be tacit, but it really is implicit and tolerated. By looking the other way and ignoring such behavior, the adults give their permission for this brutal sort of initiation ritual. Are the team members who carry out these things responsible for their actions? Of course they are. They're the ones doing it and they should be punished according to the law.

But it is the coaches and other staff members who set the tone of the team's internal interactions. They are the ones who provide an environment where such things occur. They are also the ones who can make it abundantly clear that no such behavior will ever be tolerated and provide an environment where the team is supportive of all members, rather than otherwise.

Suspend them without pay when physical or sexual occurs. At once. I guarantee that such policies will ensure that these adults make it very clear to the teams they supervise that no hazing of any kind will be tolerated. If they know that such hazing will lead to their immediate suspensions, you can be sure they'll make certain that no such hazing will occur. It's guaranteed.

ETA: I changed firing to suspension without pay, in response to replies. The point is that it stops and those responsible face consequences immediately.

[aikoaiko]

1. I would say after due process, then fire immediately if facts hold up.

[MineralMan]

2. Nope. Immediately. It could be called suspension without pay, if you like.

Reviews and appeals can be done later. The fact that some hazing incident occurred is almost always obvious. Deal with it immediately and review later.

[aikoaiko]

6. I think organizations should not punish without reviewing first.

Punish first and ask question later is unethical.

Its doesn't have to take long, but there should be some investigation and a chance to respond.

[Stuart G]

3. I agree to the idea there must be some proof...before all are fired.

Yes, all coaches of the senior football team on which the hazing happened would be fired. After a few firings ...no more hazing. But, some proof must be there.

[MineralMan]

5. I altered the OP, calling for suspension without pay,

pending review.

[MineralMan]

4. I changed the OP to call for immediate suspension without pay.

Reviews and appeals can then occur.

[msanthrope]

7. You are completely correct about the permission aspect--any coaching team that does not

affirmatively take charge and state that any type of hazing is wrong is giving these teams permission to act badly.

[MineralMan]

9. Such rules should be part of the initial team meetings.

A total hazing ban should be clearly voiced by staff, with consequences of any such incidents clearly laid out. Consequences should be immediate removal from the team, of source, for anyone involved. That will put a stop to it if it is stated clearly and emphatically. That such warnings are not given is permission.

[Blue_Tires]

8. It's not just a "masculine rite of passage" -thing

since you'll find almost as many women's teams caught in hazing scandals (especially on the high school level)...

And it's not just a "sports" thing either, since marching bands are notoriously harsh hazing environments as well...

[MineralMan]

10. Fine. Apply the rules to every organization, then.

There was no hazing whatsoever in my high school marching band. None. And for the last two years of high school, I was the drum major. It wouldn't have been tolerated for even a moment.

[Blue_Tires]

11. Where I've lived and worked, band hazing is widespread

I don't know if it's simply more common in the black community, or what...

[MineralMan]

21. Why would it be more common in black communities?

Please explain. I doubt very much that is true. It has to do with the culture of whatever institution is involved, I'm sure, not with the race of the people in the organization.

But, if you have some reasons to offer as to why it might be only in black communities, I'll read them.

Every band I've been in has been a friendly group, interested in playing music more than anything else. And that includes marching bands. I only remember people being friends and helping new members of the band become part of the organization. No hazing. No hassles.

[Blue_Tires]

24. Because that's where I live and work

and that's where I've seen the incidents...

I know my observations are anecdotal, and I'm not saying it's more common in one community or the other...I'm just trying to account for the discrepancy when you say it's something you've never seen nor heard of...

[Jenoch]

13. I was in the band and on athletic teams in high school.

I was also a college athlete. There was no hazing at either school.

[radicalliberal]

12. Usually, what happens in scandals of this sort . . .

. . . is that a coverup is staged. Many of the fans of school sports are indifferent to the issue of how their gridiron heroes treat other people away from the game or even other teammates. We live in a society that laughs at victims of hazing, bullying, and rape. If a young high-school football player ends up having to use a colostomy bag because of the physical injury he suffered as a result of so-called hazing, next to no one cares. "Blame the victim" is the dominant attitude.

[dilby]

14. Have you ever played a sport?

Why not just arrest the parents? The parents have more responsibility for their child's actions than a coach does. When I was in High School in the late 80's and early 90's Hazing was just starting to be banned and our coach was very adamant that no hazing would take place. Three of the older kids on our football team duct taped some of the younger kids asses and were kicked off the team plus suspended from school for it, your idea would have punished a coach and destroyed his lively hood because of dumb children that were clearly instructed not to do something and were properly punished. And do you know who had more encouragement for those retards acting like they did, their fathers who were all former high school football players and never amounted to anything in life.

[MineralMan]

15. What difference would that make?

Yes. I played on the tennis team and was on the track team. There was no hazing at all in either.

[dilby]

16. And if one of the kids on your team would have hazed.

Would you have blamed the coach?

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. I would say a school has a lot more influence over a team's behaviour than the parents

If it's just one person doing the bullying, then maybe it has come from bad parenting; if it's more than one (and the definition of 'hazing' does normally mean more than one perpetrator) then it looks like an institutional problem.

[MineralMan]

22. I agree with you. Leadership of organizations plays a larger

role than anything else in the culture of the organization. In school situations, that leadership begins with the adults.

[MineralMan]

19. Actually, yes, I would.

But none of that happened, because the coaches of the teams I was on made it clear that no such behavior would be tolerated at all.
That was the policy of the school I attended, enforced by both the principal and the superintendent of schools in that district. Everyone knew that policy, and followed it.

So, yes, if a coach allowed such things to happen, I would have blamed the coach, and so would the school district. Guess what? None of that crap ever happened.

High school kids and younger students follow the lead of the adults who are in charge of their activities. Zero tolerance for hazing works. It just does. But it has to be clear and open from the very beginning and enforced rigorously.

I simply do not accept that hazing and similar behaviors are natural and typical. They needn't be, and the place to make such behaviors stop is in the coaches' offices and the school administration's policies. I never encountered it because it wouldn't have been tolerated where I went to school. It's that simple.

[dilby]

20. Kids do not have fully developed brains, it's why they do stupid things.

Like drugs or drinking or lots of stupid things that both parents and coaches tell them not to do. Holding adults responsible for these stupid things is a terrible idea. If a school has a 0 tolerance policy in place for hazing and the coach tells the athletes don't be hazing that is enough. If the students go out and haze they are at fault, it's not the fault of the coach or their staff. If it can be shown the coach and their staff encouraged this behavior then yeah remove them, but I highly doubt in todays day and age you will find this happening.

[alp227]

23. please don't use "retard" as a slur as much as you think it's justified with hazers.

It's comparable to the N-word. DU shouldn't accommodate dehumanizing slurs, ever.

[GreatGazoo]

18. Looking at Mepham and other infamous incidents

much of the worst stuff seems to occur at retreats or camps.

The horrible sexual stuff aside, some of sports training is an awful lot like hazing -- running laps as punishment (or whatever), screaming in the lockerroom, verbal humiliation, etc.

It is a tough thing to rein in because media now loves this stuff -- Gordon Ramsay screaming obscenities, calling large cooks "big boy," humiliating them because his boring-ass beef wellington is over cooked and making them drink squid milkshakes. It normalizes this, and even upholds it as good training technique.