Tape of local high school hazing becomes world news
May 8, 2003, BY BRYAN SMITH AND JANET RAUSA FULLER Staff Reporters
From Saskatchewan to suburban London, the story of hazing at a high school in a Chicago suburb has passed into the world's consciousness through TV, radio and print.
CNN and the BBC are on the story, with CNN's Paula Zahn devoting a segment to it Wednesday night. "The O'Reilly Factor" and Oprah want a piece. "Inside Edition" is hunting down guests.
The videotaped beatings of a group of Glenbrook North High School girls at the hands of seniors in a "powderpuff football" game have flashed across cable channels and network newscasts.
The school's semi-secret rite of passage has suddenly become a flashpoint for discussion of teen cruelty.
It had developed its own set of unwritten "rules"--no scarring, no major hitting, no cutting of hair. The juniors, for their part, were expected not to fight.
<snip>
"A little paint and a little poo," is what one of the girls said she expected. The first thing that caught the girls' attention was the drinking. People were getting drunk. Not terribly surprising. According to people familiar with the event, you were supposed to chip in a few bucks for a keg.
But there was something menacing in the mood that was enough to scare the girls.
"About 10 minutes into it, the mood completely changed," said Marina. "Some kids got pulled out and a girl started to go after them."
Marina felt her earrings ripped from her ears, and punches and kicks to her ribs and tailbone. Welts bloomed where Lauren and Dayna were pummeled and a bruise appeared on Cheryl's upper lip.
One of the girls said the juniors were forced to put paint thinner in their mouths and were throwing up. Some were smeared with excrement. One of the girls said pig intestines were wrapped around her face. Another said Spam and raw meat were crammed into their mouths. One of the girls said she was hit in the back of the head with a bucket. But it was the punches and kicks that were the worst.
"They showed no remorse," Marina said. "I thought I was going to die."
"It was assault," another said. "They were beating people. I looked up and saw people bleeding and I knew it wasn't right."
<snip>
Meanwhile, the world is joining the Chicago area in asking: How could girls from well-heeled suburbs turn into attackers?
And why did the Glenbrook North girls submit themselves to such cruelty, even if they didn't realize powderpuff football could turn so violent?
[Perhaps one of the all-time biggest understatements of fact. Principal Riggle should have included himself and his school staff as responsible parts of the Damaged Goods at Glenbrook HS.]
Whether students are punished, Riggle said, damage has been done to the school.
[The good thing about beating your head against a brick wall, it feels sooo good when you STOP.]
Participants explained the game along these lines: Enduring such ordeals creates a bond and gives status to those who survive.
[It sounds to me like inner-city gang rituals and the mob psychology that people flee to the suburbs thinking they can escape]
There are people willing to endure fear to feel part of a dominant group. "It's a ritualized way to mark a rite of passage," said Bradley Pechter, a psychiatrist at Northwestern.
[As noted by Mark Morford]
(Historical note: this item marks the first time in recorded AP history that the words "touch football," "suburban high school girls" and "splattered with feces" all appeared in the same sentence. Please make a note of it).
FOLLOWUP: May 16, 2003
Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine filed criminal charges today against 15 Glenbrook North High School seniors in the notorious hazing episode and blasted North Shore residents for not helping police figure out who supplied the kids with booze.
All of the students charged today were seniors. If convicted, they could face penalties ranging from court supervision or probation to up to 364 days in jail and fines of up to $2,000.
They were to surrender themselves this afternoon at the courthouse, where they will be fingerprinted, photographed and released after posting $100 in cash.
Devine declined to detail what role the charged youths played in the skirmish and emphasized they were charged because prosecutors had evidence against them.
"There may be individuals that were not captured on videotape or that we do not have information on that were as active or aggressive as individuals who have been charged," he said. "That's why the investigation is ongoing."
But Devine said the focus of the probe will now shift to adults who fueled the violence by either supplying kegs of beer the youths drank at the game or at their homes.
FOLLOWUP: 05/22/2003
SKOKIE, Ill. - Two parents were charged Wednesday with supplying alcohol to students at a suburban Chicago high school who participated in a brutal hazing incident captured on videotape.
Christine Neal, 49, was charged with delivery of alcohol to a minor for buying three kegs of beer, two of which were found at the park where the hazing took place, prosecutors said. Marcy Spiwak, 49, was charged with allowing her home to be used for underaged drinking.
Neal is the mother of student Dominic Vargas, 18, who was charged with unlawful possession of alcohol by a minor. Authorities said Vargas brought the kegs to the May 4 "powder puff" event where junior girls were brutally hazed by seniors.
From Saskatchewan to suburban London, the story of hazing at a high school in a Chicago suburb has passed into the world's consciousness through TV, radio and print.
