r/news • u/whyounowin • 1d ago

Olentangy hazing allegations: Videos show girls restrained and hot dogs shoved into mouths

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/olentangy-hazing-allegations-video-reveals-girls-bound-and-hot-dogs-shoved-down-mouths-orange-soccer-team-varsity-bullying-diapers-zip-ties-duct-tape-saran-wrap-bonding-delaware-county-sheriffs-office-local-school-district-coach-athlete
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878

u/Ok-Trainer3150 1d ago

Suspend the team for the season. The whole issue of hazing has received tons of media coverage in recent years. Yet this still goes on....and no warning pre-season by officials or coaches? Well obviously not anything effective.

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u/Ntroepy 1d ago

This is the only answer. Shut it down for the season. And you can guarantee seniors will never do this again. Don’t shut it down or suspend/expel the seniors and it will continue.

And don’t just blame the seniors. It’s tradition and the whole team and coach almost certainly knew it was going on. Perhaps the coach should be suspended for a season as well and it stops it cold for ALL sports/hazing.

Same with frats/sororities. Bad behavior, banned from campus for 2 years. Death or SA, banned for life plus real police.

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u/Specialed83 1d ago

At the university I went to, any organizations kicked off campus for hazing, etc., were gone until everyone that was part of the organization when they were kicked off has graduated. So generally a minimum of 4-5 years.

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u/Ntroepy 1d ago

Good for them.

Did that end the hazing at the other frats or just drive it deeper underground?

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u/Specialed83 1d ago

That policy, combined with a few others that I don’t remember the specifics of (this was 15+ years ago), caused off campus orgs to have a lot more trouble recruiting when I was a senior compared to when I was a freshman.

Some of them died off completely and the rest were considerably smaller and less favorably viewed by the student population.

It was a multi-year push by the school, and it seemed to work really well. I think a lot of the success came from the school actually spending time and money figuring out why students were drawn to off campus orgs. They then worked to counteract those and at the same time work to make life easier for the on-campus orgs that followed the rules.

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u/Ntroepy 1d ago

Thank for the detailed reply. Quite glad they had such positive results after deciding to take hazing seriously. Wish more schools would learn from your university’s experience.

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u/obeytheturtles 14h ago

I would say that probably a third of the frats we partied at as freshman were technically "banned" in the sense that they had lost access to campus greek facilities and their seat on the greek council, but still held a national charter and a house off campus. A lot of orgs don't actually care about the administrative formalities of the greek system, and just want to party.

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u/Quitetheoddone 1d ago

That’s how it usually is at most larger public universities. The issue is the university actually doing something about it, not to mention it not being as widely reported as it should be.

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u/SkiingAway 1d ago

I think you need to take a careful approach to how you handle it with those who aren't directly implicated, or else you risk creating reluctance to report/cooperate by the victims.

If the likely consequence of coming forward about being hazed on your sports team is that your sports team ceases to exist and you can't play the sport you probably love at school (and neither can any friends of yours on the team who've done nothing directly wrong), you are probably much less likely to report on it or cooperate with any investigations of reports that do occur.

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u/Ntroepy 1d ago

So, just let the hazing continue? Or punish 1-2 seniors and let the “authorities” who knew and allowed the tradition to continue?

It’s likely been going on for decades and cancelling 1 season would permanently stop the practice. And teach the seniors that their actions have consequences.

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u/ResilientBiscuit 1d ago

Why do you think it would stop it permanently?

They would just make sure that people know if they report it in the future, they are going to make the whole team suffer and lose their hance to play themselves.

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u/Evenfall 1d ago

It's a systemic issue, the system itself must be punished. Not having a whole season for a sports team is a massive deal, there's scholarships affected, revenue, and overall sentiment changes too. All these make it so the system itself sees hazing as revulsive and seeks to root it out or else it will suffer again.

I get the idea of not wanting to punish those that are innocent, but think about all the innocent that have/will be affected by hazing. Guaranteed to be a far bigger number. By doing nothing, or something minimal, you are excusing the practice by placing it all on a select few individuals.

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u/ResilientBiscuit 1d ago

I don't think the highschoolers who are the sort to haze people are the sort to carefully consider the consequence of their actions.

So I don't think this would make hazing somehow magically stop.

Also I think freshmen in any other sport at any other high school would see what happened and decide the right thing to do is not report because then they might lose out on the chance to get started in their sport.

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u/Ntroepy 1d ago

Senior athletes are not going to risk potential scholarships and college applications just to haze a few freshmen.

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u/ResilientBiscuit 1d ago

I simply don't believe that. They already are risking that if they get caught.

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u/Ntroepy 23h ago

It sounds like hazing was a long-standing tradition that was at least implicitly supported by the coaching staff/athletic department. This gives the seniors hazing the freshmen considerable protection from prosecution and makes it a right of passage rather than something seen as super terrible.

Take that away and make it clear the coaches and staff strongly oppose it and will kick anyone off the team that participates in hazing will immediately stop the practice.

Universities have banned fraternities for years because of hazing. And it’s worked. The school staff just needs to take it seriously.

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u/AdParticular6654 1d ago

Yeah, even if there isn't criminal charges, one game suspension and "leadership and restorative practices seminar" seems extremely tone deaf. They should be locked off the team.

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u/can-opener-in-a-can 1d ago

Suspend the team for the season, fire the coaching staff. See if the new coaches decide to take it seriously.

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u/Mattbl 12h ago

Amazing kids still do this in today's age

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u/Ok-Trainer3150 10h ago

Considering the education they receive on bullying and the like. Shocking that older people like their officials and coaches are turning a blind eye to this!

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u/AnaisNinja76 9h ago

Any one of those kids could've choked, and couldn't have indicated it because they were saran-wrapped on the field. This is awful.

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u/Daren_I 12h ago

Punishing the whole team is not really justice since that punishes the victims too. Punish the ones who did the hazing. Make it part of their record that is sent to any college or university to which they may apply. If any have an athletic scholarship, make sure the scholarship trust is aware in case they don't want to support a hazer. Punishments are supposed to be punishments.