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Schools

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.

Find out what's happening in Dedhamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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.

Find out what's happening in Dedhamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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.

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