A central New York community is grappling with the devastating consequences of hazing.
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said 11 members of the Westhill High School men’s lacrosse team were involved in what he called “hazing on steroids,” in which they allegedly led at least one team member into the woods, tied him up, and came out of the woods dressed in black with what appeared to be a gun and knife.
Anne Reagan works with children and adolescents as section chief of inpatient psychology services at SUNY Upstate. She said hazing can happen in any type of group setting, not just sports teams.
"There's a lot of psychological group theory at play with hazing and these types of things, which could be difficult," said Reagan. "The idea of social conformity, and wanting to fit in and group acceptance, and identifying to be an important part of an organization."
Reagan said it’s a good time for parents or other trusted adults to start a conversation about hazing with the kids and teens in their lives. For younger kids, talk about how words and actions can hurt people’s feelings. For older kids and teens, ask open ended questions, or bring up hypothetical situations.
"We really encourage open-ended conversations because what that does is it really helps the adults better gauge where the kids are really most troubled by it and what is bothering the kids the most, which can be very different than us as adults and parents."
Ask questions like, “What have you heard about what happened?” or “How would you have handled this differently if you had been there?”
And she said let teens know you’ll always have their backs if they do the right thing.
"The idea of 'see something, say something,' 'hear something, say something,'” said Reagan. “If other parents maybe knew their kids were victims, to think that it's just going to stop there is unlikely, so I think there's a larger community conversation, and institutional conversation, and organizational types of conversations that need to happen."
As for the incident with the Westhill students, Fitzpatrick gave the students involved 48 hours to turn themselves in to be ticketed for unlawful imprisonment, a misdemeanor, or face more serious consequences. All of them have turned themselves in.
Westhill superintendent Steve Dunham said in a letter that although the majority of the lacrosse team was not involved in the incident, the rest of the team’s season has been canceled to allow for a reset in the program’s culture next year.
