Joe’s hair is shaved across the top

HAZING

A Problem Within the Munster High School Boy’s Swim Team Program

Joe 2010

Who – Joseph Hunt

• Joe is representative of all students, he was not the only one victimized. We are just the only ones with the good sense and courage to come forward, to recognize that abuse should not be part of any educational or extracurricular program in this school system or any other.

Joe MHS Tennis Team 2011

About Joe

• Dare Role Model for past two years

• Sports enthusiast• Member of championship

teams in in 2007 in baseball and 2008/09 in basketball

• MVP in 2007 as Pitcher against a Gary team. Opposing coaches chose MVP.

• Munster Knights Chess Team member

• 2003 Northwest Indiana Regional First Place

• 2003 won game against sponsor/mentor Dr. Wei Zhou

• 2007 was member of team that won State Team Chess Championship for Eighth Grade and Under

Some of Joe’s Trophies

Academic Achievements

• Always an excellent student with near perfect attendance

• Terra Nova testing in middle school, scored in the 98th percentile in Math, 99th percentile in Math Computations, 99th percentile in Math Composite, 98th percentile in Science, 99th percentile in Social Studies.

• Scholar Athlete in freshman and sophomore years

• Enrolled in gifted program through Northwestern University

• SAT in middle school, scored better than more than 30 percent of college bound seniors

Recent History

• August 2008, our neighborhood devastated by tornado that struck Griffith

• September 2008, our home suffered substantial damage in the flooding and had to be demolished

• Fall of 2008 to March 2010, displaced and in process of rebuilding in Munster, so Joe could continue his education at MHS

Joe’s Poem about himself

Joe 2009 – Hazing began that summer just prior to starting his freshman year

What - Hazing

• The relentless and sometimes severe hazing that takes place on the MHS Boy’s Swim Team.

• Hazing refers to any activity expected of someone joining a group (or to maintain full status in a group) that humiliates, degrades, or risks emotional and/or physical harm, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate. It is a complex social problem that is shaped by power dynamics.

New York Times Letter to the Editor

July 31, 1908Content of this slide is being suppressed until copyright permission has been obtained from the author.

Hazing Practices within the Swim Program

• Irritating waterproof ointment applied

• Younger members required to clean up locker rooms

• Younger members required to clean up buses

• Younger members required to clean up lunch trays in order to sit with older members

• Equipment required for practice taken, swim paddles, fins

• Lower classmen expected to give up their shower stall for upper classmen

• Hygiene products taken by upper classmen

• Being hit with a plastic bat

• Being hit with swim fins

Hazing Practices within the Swim Program (Cont’d)

• Hair cut and dyed in a humiliating and demeaning manner

• Eyebrow shaved off to punish for changing hair cut/color

• Five Starring, being hit on the back with an open hand resulting in a “Five Star” mark

Joe’s Hair is shaved down the middle

Joe’s hair is shaved across the top

Joe’s hair is dyed luscious raspberry red

Joe’s head is shaved to tryto even it up

Who?

• Who was a victim, who was the abuser?• Most everyone on the team was a victim at

one time or another• Upperclassmen, often the captains on the

team were the abusers. Some of the young men who hazed others have gone on to some of the finest colleges and universities in this nation.

When?

• The abuses on the team were constant. Joe estimates he suffered several hundred single incidents of hazing.

• Where was the supervision?

• How could such obvious signs of abuse and abusive behavior be missed?

Joe’s head is shaved to tryto even it up

Team photo with obvious signs of abuse

• The abuses took place on the pool deck, in the locker room, in the showers, in the lunchroom, on the buses and in private homes.

Where?

Why?

• Swimming is a grueling sport. Demanding on the student and the parent.

• Hazing was a known, accepted and even protected “tradition” of the MHS Boy’s Swim Program.

• Despite countless rules, policies, bylaws and contractual agreements, none were employed to counter the hazing culture that flourished unchecked.

Contacts with Staff and Administration

• Fall of 2009, Coach Ryan Nolin, phone

• January 31, 2011 – Coach Matt Pavlovich, in person

• February 3, 2011 – Athletic Director Michael Smith, in person

• February 9, 2011 – Phone and email with Coach Matt Pavlovich and AD Michael Smith

• March 6 – Principal Steven Tripenfeldas, phone

• March 9 – Superintendent Pfister, in person

• April 18, phone to Mr. Pfister for follow-up meeting

• May 18, receive return phone call from month earlier

• May 23, Mr. Pfister, present formal complaint, in person

• May 26, Principal Tripenfeldas and Dean Clark, in person

How has Joe been affected:

• Suffers bouts of depression

• Suffers bouts of anxiety

• Lowered self-esteem

• Diminished self-confidence

• Drop in grades

• Difficulty concentrating

• Stressful dealing with this on top of regular adolescent issues

• Skin issues

• Neck injured in attack, treated but continues to cause discomfort from time to time.

How does Joe continue to be affected?

• Great anxiety over returning to school

• Places great pressure upon himself to “prove” himself

• Loss of friends on swim team due to their ignorance of how hazing is hurtful and damaging

• Health concerns due to level of chlorine exposure he suffered as result of hazing behaviors in the showers

• Stress and anxiety due to amount of time it has taken for this issue to be addressed

Additional Concerns

• The instances of abuse by the coaching staff itself have not been addressed. These are addressed in the next slide.

• There are many incorrect statements contained in both the summary of the investigation and Ms. Szarmach’s subsequent investigation.

• Many students who graduated this year and who clearly violated their contractual agreements to participate in extra-curricular activities as well as IHSAA competitions have received no punishment whatsoever.

• Treatment of parents and students when dealing with staff and administration should be improved.

List of Abuses by the Coaching Staff.

• These are merely examples and may not include all the actions by this coaching staff that have negatively impacted the members of this team:

• Morning practices that run too long, thereby depriving athletes of time to have breakfast. This is abusive on physical, mental and emotional levels.

• Evening practices that run over by more than five or 10 minutes. Numerous occasions. Abusive to both parents and swimmers.

• Disciplines that have been haphazardly applied with the most serious infractions receiving no discipline. Singling out individuals when numerous members have exhibited same behavior.

• Physical abuse being inflicted on the basis of fees not being paid.• Swimmers forced to swim 3000 additional yards at the end of a meet,

despite the fact they had a full training week prior. • Five o’clock in the morning practices after late night meets where boys

do not return home until 9:00 or later.

Why we were compelled to pursue this issue.

• We could not let this go, because it would have sent Joe all the wrong messages:

• That it is okay for someone to abuse you.

• If you are abused you should be quiet about it.

• That often the people in authority who should protect you, don’t.

• That the reasons they don’t is because they perceive some higher mission. They do not understand that when they fail one child in such a way, they fail all children…they fail themselves and the institution they represent.

Suggested Improvements to Deal with Hazing at MHS

• Make the process transparent • Zero tolerance• Accelerated timeline for dealing hazing• Education of all staff, administrators, students and

parents as to what constitutes hazing, what to do if a student is hazed, how to intervene on behalf of someone being hazed, how to report it. Hazing can only exist in secrecy.

Requested Actions

• While there has been some improvement regarding communicating hazing concerns to parents, it is not nearly enough and needs to be expanded upon. Education is key.

• A recognized expert in the field of hazing needs to be brought in for an all-school assembly. Mr. Elliott Hopkins of the National Federation of High School provides such a service as part of his job. There would be no cost to the district for his presentation.

Requested Actions (Cont’d)• By acknowledging and exposing the problem, you

will give support to Joe and every young man who has been a victim, thereby relieving the stigma of disloyalty that has been perceived. Coming forward is not the act of a coward, but required great courage.

• That the School Board appropriately reprimand and discipline those in authority who have have compromised this district and the students by their actions, and lack thereof,

New York Times Letter to the Editor

July 31, 1908Content of this slide is being suppressed until copyright permission has been obtained from the author.

103 years later… Isn’t it time things changed? Take this

terrible situation and make it positive, become a force for

change in this school, this state, this nation.