Yet Another High School Football Team Sexual Assault Hazing

[MineralMan]

https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/10/02/its-bad-its-bad-proctor-teens-say-students-used-item-to-sodomize-teammate-shared-video-online/

You can read the story at the link. I won't belabor this particular incident here. It's big news in Minnesota, but probably won't rise to the national news level. However, it's just one of many such assaults of this nature that happen every year.

The conventional wisdom shared by coaches and school officials everywhere is "Participating in team sports builds character." And yet, hazing, often involving sexual assault, of younger athletes by older ones seems to be a commonplace on high school sports teams.

What's that about? Why do we see stories about it every year? What kind of character is being built with this?

Now, there have been hazing incidents involving sexual assault in other school activities, but they appear to be more common when connected with contact sports teams. Is this some sort of tradition? Or is it related to something about the sports themselves?

I don't know.

Anyhow, the story at the link happened in a small town of just 3000 people in northern Minnesota. The school tried to keep the story quiet and out of the news, but everyone in town heard about it right away. There was video, too, of the assault. Such a thing can completely destroy a small town and set up a chain of blame and defensive tactics that splits people into different camps. It's almost too common and seems to happen sporadically everywhere.

Will justice end up being served? Probably not to the extent it should be. The young victim, of course, will not be able to return to classes at that school. The perpetrators will be, and are already, known to everyone in that town. What will happen to them? If the thing follows the usual pattern, not very much, really. They're juveniles. People will turn away from the ugliness and just hope it goes away.

A pity is what it is. It's another instance of the popularity of a sport overriding the dangers of participation in that sport.

Count on it: Every year, similar sports team sexual assault hazing incidents will make the local news all across the country. It's predictable. "Builds character" my rosy red ass.

[viva la]

1. I wonder how the coaches are involved.

This was happening in a (quite wealthy) suburb near me. Several incidents (always involving younger players, twice kids of color in a town that's 95% white) happened during team activities-- one on the team bus, a couple others in locker rooms.

Where were the coaches? The bus driver? The adults?
Apparently deliberately ignoring the rapes (yeah, it's rape).

Of course, many students and parents blamed the victims when one or two of the perps got suspended and the coach (eventually) fired. Then the prosecutor actually brought charges against the shiny frat-boy rapist== that really got the football fans mad.

Where are the adults? Why would the team be left on its own for that long... and no one responsible apparently even close enough to hear the screams?

[MineralMan]

2. I don't know. The school has cancelled the football season.

Coaches know, I have no doubt. It's "tradition" somehow. Maybe they participated in similar acts themselves. Maybe they were victims.

And you're right. Sports boosters will decry the punishment of the perpetrators and minimize the horror of the victim. "Think of the athletes losing their opportunities," they will say. Maybe they were participants themselves, or victims.

Apparently, such stuff is "Tradition." It's violent sexual assault. That is what it is.

[whathehell]

6. "Think of the athletes"!..We're are thinking of them -- as violent perverts.

I find irony in the face that these young men would likely go ballistic if you identified them as gay.

[MineralMan]

8. I'm more concerned with the perpetrators being psychopaths, really.

Because the kind of sexual abuse they used was psychopathic, not really sexual in nature. The goal was total humiliation of the victim. I'm sure they achieved that goal with their victim.

The leader of the assault is a psychopath, who will probably engage in other acts during his life. That's what bothers me the most. If he is not adequately dealt with, we get another person in society who will harm others, probably again and again.

[whathehell]

14. I understand..but you might ask why sex is considered "humiliating?

I'd guess the answer would tell us a LOT about attitudes toward women, and their position in society

Of course it's psychopathic, I'd guess most unprovoked violence is, but there is something odd about choosing sex as the "weapon" in this case, especially by the virulently "macho".

[obamanut2012]

17. Because they treat them like girls and women who nee3d to be demeaned

And, how do you do taht to girls and women? You rape them. But oh no! These guys are one of Teh Gheys, so they rape them with objects and not genitals.

[whathehell]

19. So "girls" are, by definition, low status, low grade beings

Being compared to us is the MOST humiliating experience a male could have.

Thanks for explaining that.

[whathehell]

32. Happy with that, are you?

Last edited Sat Oct 2, 2021, 09:53 PM - Edit history (1)

[whathehell]

33. What?..No more badass, one word confirmations?

Nah...I thought not..

Just another reminder of what a TOTAL misnomer the term "balls" is.

[whathehell]

15. I understand..but you might ask why sex is considered "humiliating?

I'd guess the answer would tell us a LOT about attitudes toward women, and their position in society

Of course it's psychopathic, I'd guess most unprovoked violence is, but there is something odd about choosing sex as the "weapon" in this case, especially by the steadfastly "macho".

[Backseat Driver]

3. It's a cult-ure in which, well, one thing leads to another

such that even TBDBITL's Director (an alumni) was released for not doing enough to quell unique activities that had pre-dated his position, yet other faculty did not suffer the same consequences who most certainly had knowledge of those (worse) on- or off-campus sports and/or sport-related activities that also failed in that regard - hence, the like of congress critter, Gymmy (no jacket) J (wrestling).

[Buckeyeblue]

4. The problem really is that sports in high school gets the attention that it does

The parents of athletes tend to be the most vocal and critical. Too many think their kids have more talent than they do. They bitch more about their kids playing time and the coaches than they do class sizes. And the kids that play sports get treated differently than those who don't. There is an air of privilege.

I played sports in HS. I've seen it first hand. It still goes on at my son's high school. He's not interested in sports (which I'm fine with). But he sees it.

I'm not sure sports should be part of school. True physical education should be. I think the academic benefits of sports have been overly exaggerated. If we put the energy and effort into improving reading skills, math skills and getting kids excited about science (everyone should be excited about science) we would be better preparing our kids to be part of this world economy.

[MineralMan]

5. Sports are very popular. So much so that fans and parents often

ignore problems. People tend to focus on what seems important to them, so if their kid plays sports, that's the focus.

I wasn't an athlete. I was a band geek, instead. Oddly enough, the band also taught leadership skills, cooperative skills, discipline, and many more useful things. Just like sports are supposed to do. However, the band wasn't given much attention overall. Never mind that our small town high school band placed 6 musicians on the all-state honor band and won numerous awards. It was just, you know, band.

It was the student athletes who got all of the praise and attention. I didn't care, because I was participating in something, too, but it always seemed unbalanced. In our small high school, we had just 600 students in total. Over 100 of them participated in the band, with another 50 participating on the school's choral group. Music students outnumbered student athletes, but were pretty much ignored by the school administration and the community. Oh, well...

[Buckeyeblue]

7. Yes. We revere athletes and call scientists fakes.

Imagined if the reverse was true. And I'm guilty of it. I love watching sports. But it's purely escapist. At least for me. Many people watching make the mistake of caring more about the outcome than those paying.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes, exactly. And academics were even less noticed.

I was also a high achiever in academic areas. That got me nowhere in the social structure of my high school. Just the opposite, actually. Again, I ignored it because it didn't matter to me.

Oddly enough, I also had a good deal of athletic talent. In PE class competitions, I always finished first or second in almost every activity. I got actively recruited by the coaches of the basketball, track and field, and baseball teams. I said "No, thanks. I'm in the band." That actually made a couple of the coaches angry at me, of all things. I never really understood that at the time. Now, I do.

The focus in our schools is twisted all out of shape, it seems to me.

[Buckeyeblue]

34. The sports people don't understand why all kids don't want to play sports

I think fewer students than ever are playing. There is too much emphasis (and dare I say money) on kids picking one sport and completely dedicating themselves to it. It's insane really. And sets expectations for kids they can never live up to.

[MineralMan]

35. Yes, that seems to be true.

Really, only a small percentage of kids get seriously involved in team sports. Way too much attention is paid to that small minority, and too little to the rest of the student body, it seems to me.

As for the single-sport focus, yes, that's an issue. What the athletes and their parents don't understand is that only a few kids will parlay their sports activities into things like scholarships, etc. Again, the vast majority do not get those benefits, which are reserved for the very few who excel at the sport they choose.

[whathehell]

31. "We" don't do that, "they" do that.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. From what I understand, this was more bullying than hazing.

[MineralMan]

11. Well, it can be called whatever you like.

Bottom line, though, is that some poor kid got raped with a stick by a group of fellow team-members. That often seems to be how that "bullying" or "hazing" goes. Makes zero sense to me at all.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. I think it's an important distinction that has a lot to do with how the story is hitting people.

Hazing is a process by which potential members of a group are accepted into that group. It’s fairly common on sports teams, and is certainly upheld by an attitude of “it’s always been this way. “But bullying is a tactic to exclude and push out a member of a group. The outcry over this crime tells me that people see it more as bullying that hazing, Which is a cautiously optimistic sign for the culture while admittedly not making a difference to the victim or the injuries they suffered. But the fact that parents are calling for answers and are generally supporting the victim is not an outcome you can always rely on.

[obamanut2012]

16. They want to demean and control them by rape

Just like what is done to women.

But, since they "aren't one of those homosexuals," they don't5 make the yo9ung men they attack give them oral sex, and they can't anally rape them with their penises, because that's "gay," so they always always always rape them this way.

It's rape.

I know you know that, but that's why. It's what they do to women and girls.

Also, why do HS girls sports teams not rape their teammates?

[FakeNoose]

12. Underage girls, yes, but the boys are also underage

Why isn't there more supervision by parents? Why aren't coaches taking responsibility?

Thank goodness my son is long out of high school because I'd be forced to put my foot down and forbid any team sports, based on the crazy attitudes of some schools and some parents. Golf, tennis, cross country? well OK, but no contact sports and definitely NO FOOTBALL.

[whathehell]

18. It's also underage boys initiating it, no?

Ugly, ugly stuff.

[MineralMan]

21. Parents tend to trust teachers and coaches.

That trust is sometimes misplaced. Contact sports, like football, encourage aggression on the part of participants. For that reason, I suppose they attract aggressive kids and often have coaches with a background in such a sport as well. Winning through aggressive force is the goal of football, really. Every play involves aggressive contact with opposing players.

Perhaps that is why I never played team sports. I'm not an aggressive person, so I was not attracted to them.

Now, that's just an amateur analysis of possible reasons for such abusive behavior, but that's what I suspect.

[thucythucy]

20. I wonder if anyone has studied the prevalence of these atrocities

committed in the name of football, as opposed to other sports.

Or is this sort of crime as likely to occur in the context of other team sports?

Whatever the case, the focus on sports in our public education system, from grade school on up, absolutely distorts and distracts from what the goals of education should be.

I never ever believed the BS line about "sports builds character." The meanest bullies I knew were all "star athletes" whose pretensions to glory and sense of entitlement were enabled and reinforced by coaches and school administrators pretty much K through 12. Even regular gym class, which focused on sports to the almost total exclusion of anything like actual physical fitness, tended to divide students into "stars" and everyone else.

I hated gym all through school. By my senior year of high school--as the bullying got worse and worse--I said "fuck it" and cut every gym class from then on, getting suspended multiple times despite being an honors student.

If I had the power I'd reduce team sports to the status of any other extra curricular activity, from chess club to the debate team. And I'd focus gym classes on instilling healthy habits and genuine physical fitness.

And I'd definitely debunk forever all that BS about team sports "building character." Unless by "character" you mean the sort of sociopaths who delight in inflicting pain on those perceived to be weaker or otherwise different than themselves.

But that's just me.

[MineralMan]

22. I also opted out of gym class in my senior year, but

with permission. It took some persuasion on my part, but at the time, I had a job from 5 AM to 8 AM delivering milk to homes for the local dairy. I got more than plenty of exercise, so I used that argument with the school. I was an honor student, as well, which helped. So, instead of PE class, I did independent study in the library.

Getting that permission was very difficult, though. I had to convince the school principal and the superintendent that I more than fulfilled my exercise requirements with my 6-days-a-week job of running from a truck to people's houses with a gallon or more of milk in my hand. It may have helped that I delivered milk to both the principal's and superintendent's houses.

"This is highly irregular, but you have made your case very well." With that, I stopped going to PE classes.

[Hortensis]

23. Can you doubt it? If there were money to be made, I'd try to

find a reliable count for the studies and offer to bet. No doubt from the perspectives of every somehow-related field.

I'm absolutely with you on maintaining sports as normal extracurricular activities. What whole counties and states would replace their glory and enthusiastic loyalty with, investing money that should go to academics and street cleaning, I don't know, and we'd have to be concerned about that.

As for character, you're thinking only of how it fails, and who it fails with, not what succeeds, who with, and how. I had a little grandson try to drag himself miserably out of bed with the flu because staying home would let the team down. He was needed and had a duty to meet. He's still in elementary school, so I can't report on whether he gets through high school without participating in a team bang behind the bleachers, but somehow I suspect most do. In other words, there are ways to do it right, and I'm sure some places it is being done right. Just not nearly enough.

[Dawson Leery]

25. Football and Wrestling.

The rough "sport" tends to attract the degenerates of society.

This happens all the time. When it does, everyone scrambles to put it under the rug.

Do not get me started on gym class and official school sports. I am a little peeved at JFK for promoting them.

Whoever said that hazing "builds character" should never have been born.

[samnsara]

26. do they relize they can be charged with rape? This happened in my home town many years ago..

..the victim and his family moved out of town and the other boys charged with rape. Whats with high school boys and their fascination with (other peoples) orifices anyway?

[stopdiggin]

27. this starts and ends with coaching

No I am not stating that coaches are participating (or even always aware) - but coaches (and other adults involved) very definitely set a tone for 'culture' - and what will be allowed and tolerated. Clear signals and an unflinching commitment will get this message across - and it has to come from the adults. This community did the right thing in cancelling the season. Strong no nonsense message.

If your coach is being lauded as 'old school' (and perhaps borrowing from some military attitudes?) - you might want to take a close look at what the real 'values and attitudes' being promoted in your program are. But this has to stop - and it will only stop with coaches making clear that they have absolutely no tolerance for it on their squad.

[MineralMan]

28. That's very true. Sadly, most of the coaches, especially in football

come from the same school of coaching styles. They stress the aggression and fighting attitude over all else.

"Don't play like a girl! Hit 'em hard!" "Man up!" "Walk it off!" "Play through the pain!"

[stopdiggin]

29. and for far too long 'boys will be boys'

which translates to - men will be crude, cruel, callous, brutish - and ultimately bullies. You know - good old locker room, 'grab 'em by the ___' type stuff. We have to stop validating that crap.

[MineralMan]

30. Agreed.

[Initech]

36. Man remember the good old days when kids were just shoved into lockers?

I of course speak with the utmost sarcasm!

[MineralMan]

37. I never saw that happen, actually.

I'm sure it did, along with other bullying. I just wasn't the target of any of it.