Students Talk About Recent Hazing Incident
Two Dedham High and one West Roxbury High student speak out about the recent hazing incident offering up what talk has been circling in their circles.
Due to the sensitive nature of the issue and their age, Patch has chosen not to use the names of those who spoke out concerning the recent hazing incident.
As reports surfaced last Thursday about a hazing incident at Dedham High that involved five students, very little has become clear as neither the school nor the police will release a statement due to the age of the teens involved. At the end of last week, NECN and Boston.com reported that four students have been charged with alleged hazing, although offered no specifics on the circumstances.
Going in and out of the many stores in Legacy Place, Patch sought out some high schoolers to explain what they thought about the incident and stumbled upon the rumors that have been floating around the school.
Patch would like to make it clear this is all conjecture and Patch cannot confirm or deny any of these reports.
From speaking with two Dedham High students and one from West Roxbury High, Patch was told by all parties that three seniors on the football team held down a freshman player while another senior teammate exposed his genitals onto the freshman's face.
A tenth grader shopping with her mother at TJ Maxx informed Patch, “what everybody is saying, it's around the whole school. They just did it to be funny.”
The act has been making its way around the halls at nearby West Roxbury High as well. A senior their explained what he had heard about the incident saying, “it was kind of jokingly rape, but just playing around.”
When asked about these kind of events and if they occur regularly at his school and at Dedham High, the senior detailed, “I'd say it's pretty common. There are fights all the time.” When asked if these “fights” were groups of students picking on one particular student, the senior added, “no, it's one on one, fair fights.”
A tenth grade female in a shoe outlet shopping with her mother and sister told Patch how some students thought the event wasn't a serious issue when she said, “I don't think it should constitute hazing, just bullying at most, the kid wasn't [psychically] hurt.” When asked the difference between hazing and bullying, the student saw hazing as adding a psychical abuse to some kind of bullying. “I don't think the punishment should be that bad, the school blew it out of proportion.”
This same tenth grader informed Patch that the football player who exposed himself was being expelled, however, as with all of the above statements, Patch cannot confirm or deny these statements at this time.
Avon Barksdale
7:54 am on Monday, October 1, 2012
I spoke with a few high school students at the mall and they said that Mikey J stole some ice creams from the cafeteria last week and left them in Tony B's locker, they dripped all over everything and wrecked his geometry homework. Patch - quick, do a follow up on this story, maybe interview Danny, you know, the ugly kid who smells like rotting squash, I heard he ate some of the melted ice cream, gross.
GREAT JOURNALISM PATCH! WAY TO SET THE BAR HIGH!
Avon Barksdale
8:03 am on Monday, October 1, 2012
"Due to the sensitive nature of the issue and their age, Patch has chosen not to use the names of those who spoke out concerning the recent hazing incident." How about not running these comments at all, since it's all hearsay and this article is the equivalent of printing the ramblings of the town drunk? And when I want to know about what happens at Dedham High, I know that I go right to the source - STUDENTS AT WEST ROXBURY HIGH.
This could be the single most irresponsible local "news" article ever posted to the internet, congratulations.
No Name
12:12 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
hey Avon
maybe if West Roxbury High Students don't drive through Dedham looking for a fight, they wouldn't know everything that went on at DHS. Maybe they should comment on there own High School which I'm sure has just as many happenings there too!
steve
1:08 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
This is getting blown out of proportion ofcourse by our great dedham school and their rules. It happens everywhere its part if sports if the kid isn't rough enough to take it maybe he should join something else. I played sports.my whole life it happens its all in the.fun of team sport but ofcourse whe have these New age liberal idiots.who are more worried about what organic food to pack for lunch or how to be more green. If you can't handle alittle fun in the team sports join a book club or something
Avon Barksdale
1:17 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
Steve, I've played sports my whole life as well and I am proud to say that this doesn't sound like my idea of a fun time. I'm guessing that your current idea of fun probably includes getting together with a bunch of other fatties at Tahiti and talking about the glory days when the team went 2-8-0 but almost put a scare into Walpole before they scored 60 points in the second half. Congrats, enjoy.
Sabrina Edwards
3:16 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
If you condone this kind of behavior then you must live like a "FARM ANIMAL" too!!!
No Name
3:30 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
If you condone this kind of behavior and think there is nothing wrong with it then you must live like a FARM ANIMAL" too!!!
No Name
3:56 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
Perhaps you don't know the specifics of what happened in the locker room.....perhaps you might want to figure it out before you make a post on something you have no clue about....the boy who was assaulted wasn't hit with a towel, stuffed into a locker, given a wedgie.....he was sexually assaulted by a group of upper classman
steve
5:39 pm on Monday, October 1, 2012
I was not aware of a real sexual assault if that is what happened they haven't released anything. Then you tell me what really happened if you know. A sexual assault these days is if someone holds your hand so please do tell me what happened because the press releases are vague
Anon
4:34 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012
This wasn't hazing, it was simply a prank taken completely out of proportion. I know ALL the kids involved and they are all good kids and now their families are being forced to shell out thousands of dollars on lawyers. Getting the police involved was the worse possible thing that the administation at DHS could have possibly done because now that kid that got another man's genitals to the face will have a much harder time living it down now that everyone at school knows his name and his face. Way to be, Dedham.
Avon Barksdale
4:46 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Yeah. It would have been much better if they tried to sweep it under the rug and protect the kids who did this, then when somebody ran to the media and dropped a dime about it we'd have two scandals - hazing on the football team, and the administration covering it up. Can you imagine the lawsuits then? Much worse than now, and a lot of people fired. Out of all possible outcomes, this was the best that Dedham could have hoped for - a short news cycle thanks to some swift, responsive action on the part of the administration.
I also laugh every time somebody says "this wasn't hazing, it was simply a prank taken completely out of proportion." That pretty much describes ALL hazing. It starts off okay but then just goes too far. And I love the complete hypocrisy in your statements, that "it was just a prank" and "they are all good kids" but what they did was so dysfunctional and disturbing that the victim will have trouble "living it down." Did you even read your own comments before you posted them? The school department didn't assault this student, other students did. And they deserve the consequences for their actions.
ANONYMOUS
7:35 pm on Thursday, October 18, 2012
WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN 4 BOYS HOLDING A GIRL DOWN AND PUTTING BALLS IN HER FACE. THAT WOULD BE SEXUAL ASSAULT. BUT BECAUSE IT WAS BOYS ON BOYS ITS OK. ALL THESE KIDS ARNT GOOD KIDS AND THEY NEED TO LEARN RESPONSIBLITLY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. END OF STORY. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE LET THESE TYPES OF THINGS GO. THOSE 4 BOYS RUINED THAT KIDS LIFE BECAUSE EVERYONE IN SCHOOL WOULD HAVE FOUND OUT ANYWAYS THATS HOW HIGH SCHOOL WORKS. IF THE PARENTS INVOLVED TAUGHT THEIR KIDS SOME DECENCY AND MORALS THEY WOULDNT BE SHELLING OUT THOUSANDS.