Hazing Hits High Schools

Aug. 28, 2000 -- Hazing is no longer a problem limited to college campuses, as a new survey find that high schools are also dealing with initation rites that go too far.

Researchers at Alfred University in New York released a survey today, saying hazing has become significantly more violent and dangerous, and often starts at the high school level. The study says nearly 2 million teenagers each year are being hazed.

“Forty-eight percent of all students who join any group in high school are subjected to hazing. Forty-three precent of them reported being subjected to humiliating activities, 23 percent are involved in substance abuse, and 29 percent of them told us they performed potentially illegal acts as part of their initiation,” said Dr. Nadine Hoover, principal investigator.

Cases of alcohol poisoning are widespread, and severe physical abuse are also common, the survey says.

Hazing is defined as “any humiliating or dangerous activity expected of you to join a group, regardless of your willingness to participate.”

Hazing in Church Groups, Too

The Alfred University survey was the first-ever effort to measure the prevalence of hazing among American high school students.

Alfred University embarked upon the new survey after its 1999 study showed that 42 percent of the college athletes who said they were hazed to join their college team reported that they had first been hazed in high school; another five percent said they were first hazed in middle school.

“The prevalence of hazing in high school should be a serious concern to all of us in higher education, said Charles M. Edmonson, president of Alfred University. “Colleges and universities have long considered hazing to be a problem, and they have worked hard to prevent it. This study reveals that our challenge is much greater than anyone appreciated.”

The problem of student hazing is common in athletics.

“The numbers are alarming. Most students in the U.S. are involved in high school sports, and a quarter of them are being hazed. That’s approximately 800,000 high school students a year,” said Hoover.

Initiation rituals extend beyond high school sports, however.

“Many more students are involved in church groups than in fraternities or sororities. We know that church groups haze about 24 percent of their new members,” said Hoover.

“Based on that, we project approximately 237,000 high school students are being hazed to join a church group each year. That’s substantially higher than the number hazed to join a high school fraternity or sorority, which is approximately 155,000 each year.”

Bringing Awareness

Both female and male students report high levels of hazing, although male students are at highest risk, especially for dangerous hazing, the study says.

The Alfred University study, based on questionaires filled out by more than 1,500 students, found that 25 percent of those who reported being hazed said they were first subjected to hazing before the age of 13.

Eileen Stevens heads a national organization to stop student hazing. Her son Chuck died from alcohol poisoning after being locked in a car trunk and ordered to drink as part of a fraternity initiation at Alfred University in 1978.

“He never woke up. He died of acute alcohol poisoning and exposure,” Stevens said. “Other young men that same night wound up in the hospital in critical condition.

“That prompted me to form an organization and try to bring about awareness of the issue of hazing. As a parent, I was naïve. And now hazing is illegal in 42 states,” Stevens said.

“If the line gets crossed with either one, criminal behavior because the courts set that, or two, improper touching or three, dangerous activity involving alcohol and so forth, I have no problem in saying that those need to be sent to law enforcement agencies for investigation,” said Hank Nuwer, author of High School Hazing, When Rites Become Wrongs. ABCNEWS Correspondent Bill Greenwood, ABCNEWS Radio and The Associated Press contributed to this report.