One band member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, previously explained that students “walk from the front of the bus to the back of the bus backward while the bus is full of other band members, and you get beaten until you get to the back.”

Given that description, it’s easy to imagine how some students might be more harsh on particular band members. Champion suffered bruises and internal bleeding, which ultimately led to his death.

There is never an appropriate time or place for hazing. All hazing ultimately leads to this place for some people. I’m sure dozens if not hundreds of students had partaken in this ritual and survived; Losing one life to it is too many.

The family is suing the tour bus line that operated the bus where the beating occurred. I’m not sure they’ll get very far with that one, but they have said they also plan to sue the school. Hopefully the legal system will teach the school and the people who hazed Champion a lesson they’ll never forget.

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Hoop Mountain has been tossed from the Stonehill College campus in Easton, Mass., where police are investigating claims two underclassmen were urged by older teammates — two in particular — into playing a game called “wet biscuit” at the camp in early July. The loser of the game was forced to eat an Oreo cookie covered in a bodily fluid.

The bodily fluid that other media outlets seem incapable of mentioning is semen.

One of the students coaxed into the incident had already transfered to another school before the hazing was first reported to a coach on Nov. 11, about four months after the incident occurred. The accused face up to a year in jail and fines of $1,000. The camp has been kicked off the Stonehill College campus.

We constantly hear how important hazing is to building camaraderie on a team or in a fraternity. Would someone please explain to me how forcing someone to eat a semen-covered cookie, having one teammate flee the school, and having nine members of the team either suspended or expelled builds camaraderie?

Hat tip to Yahoo! sports.

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Police say the five athletes forcibly penetrated fellow members of the high school basketball team and battered and restrained the victims in a locker room and on a school bus during a three-month period that began last December.

Apparently it wasn’t just one time or one victim.

Blackfoot Police Captain Kurt Asmus said on Thursday that law enforcement officials had contacted additional victims since charges were filed earlier this month based on allegations made by four people.

“It has mushroomed from there,” Asmus said. “Now that everything is out, more victims are coming forward because they realize they are not alone and they don’t need to be afraid or embarrassed.”

If these allegations are true, I’m so thankful the victims have come forward. Homophobia and latent homosexuality contribute to these rape incidents, and the victims’ allegations give us the opportunity to again address the issue in a real, honest manner.

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“It sucks because everybody could see us running around the field holding hands,” said Merced [one of the players involved]. “It’s really humiliating.”

Merced’s mother, Tasha Martinez, said the incident is a clear case of hazing.

“To use humiliation as a means of discipline, it’s just unacceptable and I don’t know why he would do something like that,” said Martinez.

The coach reportedly has said it wasn’t meant as humiliation but rather team-building. I believe the coach. Obviously, the worst thing this mother thinks you could call her football-playing son is “gay,” and any reference to it is met with an attack from her. Now Merced says he won’t play football at the school next year. Because you had to hold a teammate’s hand? Are you serious?

I’m really sensitive about hazing, but I just don’t see how this falls into that category.

Hat tip to Queer Two Cents.

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Funny, right? I don’t think so. If the whole team was dressing up, sure, that’d be hysterical! But when you force rookies or younger players to be embarrassed or hurt, you tell kids, “It’s okay to single out new players and make them do things they don’t want to do.” Those kids then do things like sodomize and injur their teammates. I won’t apologize for reacting strongly whenever I see role models hazing one another: It leads to physical and psychological injuries in high school and college and it’s not right.

I was the founding president of my fraternity (Theta Delta Chi) at Stanford, and I took hazing seriously then. It was an odd situation: We had a pledge class of 45 guys and only three active members. Still, I was so cognizant of hazing issues and always had at least one active member participate in all of our activities, and at least one member of the pledge class had to opt out of it. Plus, there were never any penalties for anyone who opted out and there was never any pressure on the newbies from the active members to participate. By making it optional with no repercussions, and having active members participate, we maintained the value of bonding without hazing.

Unfortunately, kids won’t see what the Red Sox have done as voluntary or without repercussion. I already hated the Red Sox. Now I have reason No. 574.

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The school district has said that Cookson’s contract was not renewed after she allegedly forced the girls on her team to walk barefoot through sheep feces at a team picnic in 2005. A teacher on Indian Island, Cookson, 47, of Clifton had coached in Brewer since 1993.

Cookson claimed in her lawsuit, filed in October 2006, that the district’s claim that her contract was not renewed for so-called hazing incidents was a pretext for the real reason she was fired – her sexual orientation.

The district said the sheep feces hazing (how weird is that?) went on for three years and was ample reason to dismiss Cookson. But her attorney said the district had reprimanded the coach and ignored other reports of hazing, but only fired her after learning she was a lesbian. Cookson filed the suit after Maine included sexual orientation under its Human Rights Act.

These kinds of stories are always murky since one never knows what role the sexual orientation played in the decision. We ran a series of stories on Kyle Hawkins, a former Missouri lacrosse coach who was let go after he came out on Outsports. He claimed his sexual orientation played a key role in his dismissal, yet their was enough other evidence that suggested it had nothing to do with it and was only related to his coaching. I’ll be interested to see what the Maine jury decides. Wonder if the sheep will be called as character witnesses.

Hat tip to Fark.

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Hat tip to Rod 2.0.

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