Say NO to Bullying

On the Today Show, they have mentioned an increase in hazing between teens. Hazing is a form of bullying. In one school in Malibu, California, hazing has been occuring between 11th graders who will soon be seniors targeting freshmen, where boys are beaten, paddled, and forced to fight, while girls are humiliated and harassed. Sometimes girls are covered in food or even cat food and rolled in the sand in order to humiliate them, according to the principal's letter. "Initiation for boys often involves violence, usually in the form of being paddled of physical fighting. Girls are humiliated and harrassed," said the letter sent to warn parents. It is to "welcome the freshman to highschool. Some students called this event "initiation". But it has resulted in some people going to the hospital. The time and date are usually posted on facebook. "Well, I went through it in eighth grade." says a female student, "We got the facebook message about it and I do know the people who did go." In Westchester County, New York, three teens were arrested and were charged as adults for assult, hazing, and unlawful imprisonment of incoming students, police told the Today Show. Nearly a dozen students were taken from a library to a remote area to be beaten and paddled as part of a ritual. One student actually had to go to the hospital. Student Alex Raynor said, "It really doesn't go as far as the hospital. We just kind of rough them up and, um, take them to like a private area where no one can see," during an interview with the Today Show. Unlike the incidents in new york, students in Malibu describe the initiation as a voluntary type of action that most eighth and eleventh graders choose not to attend.