Needham Girls HS Hazing

[Unregistered]

Just wondering because the following sounds like bullying, yet schools allow it to continue at all different sports.
Fans chanting "OVERRATED" when their their team is beating a team that's supposed to be stronger - or directly to a player that is rated one of the tops in their sport yet their team is losing. (The players must be feeling so humiliated.) Chanting "WARM UP THE BUS" or singing "NA NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOODBYE" when a team is losing. Again, the losing players must be so humiliated!
When your son or daughter makes a play that makes an opposing player look inept, do YOU cheer it and whoop & holler, not caring about the feelings of the other player? If so, you must be a bully!

I could go on and on, but I hope some of the high & mighty posters on here realize they live in glass houses. Enough with this whole topic! The kids were stupid, the adults were stupid and I believe the whole thing was totally blown out of proportion! People need to get a thicker skin and get an attitude that you will experience some uncomfortable situations in your life and it's going to happen! Deal with it! It will make you stronger!

Nice straw man argument.

These girls were not accused of bullying. They were accused of hazing.

[Unregistered]

Very serious. For one thing, Todd White, a parent of one of the freshman who was "hazed" according to a Yahoo report, a lawyer and apparently a friend of the coach filed the injunction. There is no indication, other than the initial report, that any of the other parents were involved with taking this to court, is there? Beyond the initial report by WBZ.

"As the parent of an underclassman, I can safely say that the ENTIRE Needham Girl's Soccer team and parents are UNANIMOUS in supporting each senior who has been placed on suspension and the coach who has been placed on administrative leave, and assert that the event in question in no way warrants the issuing of suspensions by Needham High School,'' Lund said in the email. "In a nutshell, there was no intention to harm, nor was any harm perceived by team members, during a misguided attempt at team building.'' - Sharon Lund

“I don’t condone hazing or bullying; I am [a] pretty attentive and protective dad. Nobody was pulled around the field by a dog collar. There was no one with a bloody nose. There was no intimidation and no assault. Our concern was not the game. Our concern [was] that the event of the evening did not justify the punishment. The events of the last five days have been a lot more detrimental to my daughter’s well-being than the incident that happened.’’ - Nick Bollus, freshman parent


“I will say that [Tarabelli] has served the high school community extremely well for the last 10 years.” - Needham Public Schools Superintendent Dan Gutekanst.


Keep in mind that the "hazing" incident occurred Friday, Oct 29, the date the team had won a share of the Bay State Conference, Carey Division title,. The administration was not made aware of the incident until Thurs, Nov 4, almost a full week later, and the school superintendent said himself they learned about it as a result of a WBZ-TV reporter NOT a complaining parent. Right there you should be thinking, why would this reporter be first with this knowledge of the incident and not the school administration via a parent's complaint? On Friday, Nov 5 the principal sent an e-mail to parents of the players banning them from practice over the weekend while they investigate “an alleged incident of serious misbehavior.’’ WBZ said they broke the story on Monday, Nov 8, http://boston.cbslocal.com/2010/11/0...ed-for-hazing/ but if you go WBZ's web site and do a search, you will see their first report is dated Saturday, Nov 6. Something sure smells fishy to me about how this "investigation" was conducted.

In the interests of full disclosure, the parents who are calling for the resignation of the coach should publicly state how much playing time the coach gives their kid. It will help everyone understand the various perspectives regarding his fitness to coach. One incident should not define a man's career. You have to look at the body of work. Isn't forgiveness and redemption one of the underlying tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

- Cujo

[Unregistered]

If this was a team-building excercise then EVERYONE should have been wearing a dog collar with their face in a pie.

.

yes yes, a million times, yes. To me this is a huge part of what made this hazing. Maybe I'm not the only one thinking that the fact that one underclassman was actually a "hazer" while her classmates were the "hazees" demonstrates there was something going on here that went way beyond team building.

Team Dysfunction if only a few girls were singled out, whether or not they thought it was fun.

It's a shame that at least one of these nice young ladies who were team leaders did not have the strength to say, no, the "tradition" ends here.... remember those anti-hazing policies we signed and that were drilled into us pre-season? Maybe that's peer pressure right there. I have to say, though, there's not a kid on my daughter's team that I can imagine participating in something so stupid, with undertones that are nothing but mean-spirited.

[Unregistered]

Sanitize everything.

Of course nothing happened, no wrongdoing, except for a little teambuilding run amok.

Pies and dog collars.

Bet there will be few Needham lawyers on this board making sure the "real" story gets told.

Spare us.

[Unregistered]

In the interests of full disclosure, the parents who are calling for the resignation of the coach should publicly state how much playing time the coach gives their kid. It will help everyone understand the various perspectives regarding his fitness to coach. One incident should not define a man's career. You have to look at the body of work. Isn't forgiveness and redemption one of the underlying tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

- Cujo

Why is playing time the sole potential conflict? Isn't it possible that your kid could be a star but you could still think hazing isn't a wonderful thing for the team?

[Unregistered]

What would Cujo do???

In the interests of full disclosure, the parents who are calling for the resignation of the coach should publicly state how much playing time the coach gives their kid. It will help everyone understand the various perspectives regarding his fitness to coach. One incident should not define a man's career. You have to look at the body of work. Isn't forgiveness and redemption one of the underlying tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

- Cujo

Cujo, if you were the AD, what would you do if soccer players dragged other players by dog leashes and threw pies in their faces?

[Unregistered]

Public Trust

In the interests of full disclosure, the parents who are calling for the resignation of the coach should publicly state how much playing time the coach gives their kid. It will help everyone understand the various perspectives regarding his fitness to coach. One incident should not define a man's career. You have to look at the body of work. Isn't forgiveness and redemption one of the underlying tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

- Cujo

If the coach new about the hazing incident and did nothing, his employment should be terminated and he should lose coaching licenses. The hazing rule is pretty clearcut. He is in a position to look out for the welfare of all the players and if he chose to ignore the incident he has violated his public trust.

So, the important question is, did he know about the hazing incident?

[Unregistered]

Very serious. For one thing, Todd White, a parent of one of the freshman who was "hazed" according to a Yahoo report, a lawyer and apparently a friend of the coach filed the injunction. There is no indication, other than the initial report, that any of the other parents were involved with taking this to court, is there? Beyond the initial report by WBZ.

"As the parent of an underclassman, I can safely say that the ENTIRE Needham Girl's Soccer team and parents are UNANIMOUS in supporting each senior who has been placed on suspension and the coach who has been placed on administrative leave, and assert that the event in question in no way warrants the issuing of suspensions by Needham High School,'' Lund said in the email. "In a nutshell, there was no intention to harm, nor was any harm perceived by team members, during a misguided attempt at team building.'' - Sharon Lund

“I don’t condone hazing or bullying; I am [a] pretty attentive and protective dad. Nobody was pulled around the field by a dog collar. There was no one with a bloody nose. There was no intimidation and no assault. Our concern was not the game. Our concern [was] that the event of the evening did not justify the punishment. The events of the last five days have been a lot more detrimental to my daughter’s well-being than the incident that happened.’’ - Nick Bollus, freshman parent


“I will say that [Tarabelli] has served the high school community extremely well for the last 10 years.” - Needham Public Schools Superintendent Dan Gutekanst.


Keep in mind that the "hazing" incident occurred Friday, Oct 29, the date the team had won a share of the Bay State Conference, Carey Division title,. The administration was not made aware of the incident until Thurs, Nov 4, almost a full week later, and the school superintendent said himself they learned about it as a result of a WBZ-TV reporter NOT a complaining parent. Right there you should be thinking, why would this reporter be first with this knowledge of the incident and not the school administration via a parent's complaint? On Friday, Nov 5 the principal sent an e-mail to parents of the players banning them from practice over the weekend while they investigate “an alleged incident of serious misbehavior.’’ WBZ said they broke the story on Monday, Nov 8, http://boston.cbslocal.com/2010/11/0...ed-for-hazing/ but if you go WBZ's web site and do a search, you will see their first report is dated Saturday, Nov 6. Something sure smells fishy to me about how this "investigation" was conducted.

Wow. Sounds like the Needham lawyers are already building the case. If the parents had any sense they would drop the whole thing now, let the kids take the suspension and move on. The longer it goes on the dumber they will look to the outside world and the longer the kids will be under the microscope. As usual, only the lawyers will profit.

[Unregistered]

Hey Needham parents - take some sage advice 'When you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING'. You look like a bunch of lawyered up fools! Some teams are still PLAYING SOCCER and all of the attention is being placed on your foolish antics. Let's get back to talking-soccer!

[Unregistered]

In the interests of full disclosure, the parents who are calling for the resignation of the coach should publicly state how much playing time the coach gives their kid. It will help everyone understand the various perspectives regarding his fitness to coach. One incident should not define a man's career. You have to look at the body of work. Isn't forgiveness and redemption one of the underlying tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition?

- Cujo

I might give the coach a second chance - just not at Needham HS. He needs to serve his "penance" before being forgiven.

[Unregistered]

Can read it yourself

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/father-...ry?id=12005801

"The father of a teenager who killed himself after being forced out of the exclusive Groton School claims the prep school overreacted to accusations that his son may have bullied another student. "

You weren't there, were you? You are reading a newspaper article and drawing conclusions, exactly the thing you say no one should do. Did the article mention that the student had been expelled from other schools for bullying prior to Groton, or that his mother commit suicide as well the year before? This is what a student from Groton told me. I think they are closer to the incident than that article, and whether it's true or not, I suspect this poor child had way more going against him than this single incident or Groton could have dealt with, which is why the begged him to leave. I would certainly also like to know way more about the father before I passed judgement, so I won't. I suggest you don't either.

Needham did not suspend these girls because of a newspaper article. They talked directly to the girls and the coach and the other witnesses, THEN suspended them for obvious rule violations. Then the girls parents went to court to try and plea bargain. They did not sue the school for slander, they tried to PLEA BARGIN. Generally speaking, that is not a sign of innocence.

[Unregistered]

You need to dig a little deeper. Who tipped off the press and made this news? There are kids getting suspended for tournament games all over the state for all different kinds of violations. Want a story? Do some research into how many kids are getting suspended for 25% of the season for drug and alcohol violations. I didn't see Wellesley High on TV when they suspended half their fall varsity athletes for partying a couple of years back. Why does this one rise to the level it has? If you have read this thread you actually have people calling for criminal charges and scholarships to be revoked. Don't you think things are a little out of hand?

Isn't time to start questioning how WBZ got tipped off about the story. If it was someone with a kid on the team, what does it tell you about that person? Shouldn't we expect a parent to bring a complaint to the school before the media? If it wasn't a parent on the team, what sort of person would do this? What possible motivation could they have to stir up this much controversy? They would have to be a pretty twisted individual.

[Unregistered]

Isn't time to start questioning how WBZ got tipped off about the story. If it was someone with a kid on the team, what does it tell you about that person? Shouldn't we expect a parent to bring a complaint to the school before the media? If it wasn't a parent on the team, what sort of person would do this? What possible motivation could they have to stir up this much controversy? They would have to be a pretty twisted individual.

Cue witch hunt by Needham parents.

[Unregistered]

Wow. Sounds like the Needham lawyers are already building the case. If the parents had any sense they would drop the whole thing now, let the kids take the suspension and move on. The longer it goes on the dumber they will look to the outside world and the longer the kids will be under the microscope. As usual, only the lawyers will profit.

Sorry, not a Needham parents. Just somone reading the articles written and interpreting what was said within the timeline given.

[Unregistered]

Isn't time to start questioning how WBZ got tipped off about the story. If it was someone with a kid on the team, what does it tell you about that person? Shouldn't we expect a parent to bring a complaint to the school before the media? If it wasn't a parent on the team, what sort of person would do this? What possible motivation could they have to stir up this much controversy? They would have to be a pretty twisted individual.

Time to move on and put it in the past.