Notes from the Institution: Hazing at the high school

Written by Anna Blum
Thursday, 05 November 2009 06:14

It’s very difficult, as all Ridgefield High School teachers know, to get a class excited at a time where most of them would usually be asleep. When the topic is school rules or how much money our class has made, it’s a lost cause.

So when it comes time for our class meetings, most of the class pulls their sweatshirt hoods up, plugs into their iPod, and spends the next twenty minutes trying to sleep. But this year the junior class meeting was drastically different. The junior class reacted incredibly to our class president’s announcement that our class colors were now recognized by the administration, and therefore hazing during Spirit Week would result in suspension. There were people standing up and booing. And while booing may not have been the appropriate response, I think the sentiment behind it was correct. Frankly, I don’t think that the policy is fair.

The issue at the heart of the matter is Class Color Day. Ordinarily, on the Thursday before Homecoming, the junior and senior class members that have younger siblings or freshman friends dress them up in their class color. Examples range from a boy in my Spanish class freshman year who couldn’t get purple dye off his face for a week to stories of some kids who were dressed up as grapes with balloons taped all over them, who had to “popped” by administrators. Class Color day has been a tradition for a long time, and now that we’re upperclassman, we want to continue the tradition.

It’s not just that it was done to us, although that’s certainly where a lot of the indignation comes from. But more importantly, this is inconsistent with school policy. The Ridgefield High School administration has no problem with seniors on sports teams requiring their freshmen to dress up as princesses, nerds, or cowboys. So why then is it a problem when the seniors or juniors dress their freshman family members or friends up in green or red?

Bullying is malicious in intent. This hazing is not. It’s not being done by random strangers; it’s being done by older siblings and friends. Lowerclassmen sometimes even want to be hazed, because it shows they know upperclassmen. And while it has the potential to go overboard, and sometimes does, I think that limiting it is better than banning it. Whether or not they’re allowed, there will be some hazing going on Class Color Day. Juniors and seniors have decided to dress up their freshmen and sophomores in their own colors, rather than the colors of the class. By creating a policy that the school is unable to enforce, the administration makes its other rules look breakable as well, and makes itself resented by the students.

The administration has created a policy that it’s going to have a hard time enforcing unless they suspend enormous numbers of students. And that means that on Class Color Day, the administration will have to make some tough decisions.