During the summer prior to my freshman year of high school, I excitedly stepped on a school bus to attend a football camp with my soon-to-be football team. Although I was looking forward to bonding with my team, I couldn’t help but feel nervous about one impending event: the notorious “freshman initiation.” As a middle schooler, I would hear horrendous stories of the disturbing tasks that freshmen were ordered to do for initiation. The freshman initiation, in simplicity, is where the upperclassmen of the team take all the freshman, put them in one room, and force them to do embarrassing individual or group tasks to be “admitted” to the team. If they chose not to do what they were told, they were subsequently shunned and hated for the rest of the year. In other words, this “freshman initiation” is hazing.
Hazing, by definition, is subjection to harassment or ridicule in order for a student to acquire admittance to an organization. And contrary to the belief of many high school and college students, hazing is illegal. Let me reiterate: hazing, in any circumstance, is illegal and is a serious issue.
Most common in sports teams and college fraternities, hazing usually entails physical and/or sexual abuse, the most common being beat with a paddle of some sort. Personally, I witnessed and was forced to take part in forms of sexual invasion which I’d rather not go into detail about. Although the participants view this treatment as a bonding experience with a side of fun, it can result in obvious negative results for those being hazed. Not only can hazing cause obvious physical pains, but it can also result in psychological damage. Hazing has been known to cause emotional stress from humiliation, stress-related injuries, and sometimes depression and other forms of mental illness. Not to mention there have multiple cases of hazing resulting in death!
It’s obvious that hazing is a serious issue in our society, but how many people are actually affected by it?
According to a study done by Alfred University, at least 1.5 million high school students are hazed each year. Furthermore, 48% of high school students who participate in an organized activity have reported being hazed in some way. These statistics inform us that hazing is not an uncommon issue across high schools. In fact, it happens more often than anyone would probably like to acknowledge. Hazing may not seem like a very serious issue at the surface, but the effects should not be taken lightly. Yes, hazing is seen as fun and games, but hazing is not fun and is not a game; it’s illegal.
Following my freshman year of high school football, I did in fact quit the team. It wasn’t solely based on the hazing, but it was a significant factor. There was no way I was going to willingly harass innocent freshmen to allow them to be accepted into the organization. We need to make sure we are informed about hazing so we can prevent it as much as we can. It’s a serious issue that isn’t given enough attention from high schools and colleges. If you see hazing, call it out and try to prevent it. Some situations of hazing are inevitable, but we can make a dent in hazing culture by preventing the subsequent emotional scarring and physical injuries of a student one case at a time.
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