High schools across the country have banned hazing, and have added it to the list of offenses that can result in serious forms of school discipline. Students accused of hazing face severe consequences, including suspension or expulsion, or other forms of discipline that will be reflected in their permanent records.
That’s why it’s important to take it seriously if your student is accused of hazing by their high school. The disciplinary process at most high schools is flawed and doesn’t protect the accused student’s rights. Your child needs an experienced advocate, someone who understands how school disciplinary investigations and proceedings work and who can step up and defend your child through the entire process. The LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team helps high school students across the country protect their rights in school disciplinary proceedings. Contact us at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a consultation if your child has been accused of hazing at school.
What is Hazing?
When we think of hazing, we might think of it in the context of fraternities or sororities at the college level, a rite of initiation that each pledge must pass through if they are to be admitted as a member. But hazing happens in many other contexts, including those at the high school level.
Hazing can have different definitions, depending on the state in which the high school is located and whether that state’s laws also prohibit hazing or require schools to prohibit hazing. The definition may also vary from one school to another and is typically found in the school’s student handbook or code of conduct. The National Federation of High Schools has defined hazing as “any humiliating or dangerous activity expected of a student to belong to a group, regardless of their willingness to participate.”
Examples of hazing include:
- Physical punishment, such as paddling
- Verbal abuse directed against a student that wants to belong to a group
- Forced drinking, including of large amounts of water or of alcohol, or forced eating of large quantities of food
- Requiring the student to engage in some form of illegal activity: shoplifting, vandalism, graffiti, breaking and entering, etc.
- Prolonged deprivation of sleep, food, or liquids
- Requiring the student to perform tasks that are only required of new members
Hazing typically does not depend on the target student agreeing to participate. This is important because many students who are hazed feel as though the hazing is a necessary “rite of passage” for them to be accepted into the group, despite the fact that hazing can be both psychologically and physically dangerous. Because of this, high schools will regularly discipline students who engage in hazing, even if the students who were hazed agreed to the hazing and did not complain to the school about it.
How is Hazing Different from Bullying?
There are several differences between hazing and bullying. Bullying typically targets an individual based on their differences and can come from any student. It seeks to further exclude the targeted student from the general student population using aggressive speech and violent acts based on that student’s differences.
Hazing, on the other hand, occurs in situations where the targeted student wants to become part of the group that is conducting the hazing.
Second, while a student may believe they’ve consented to hazing or may view it as a “necessary evil” if they’re to be accepted as part of a group, victims of bullying almost never consent to being bullied.
Third, bullying usually consists of repeated attacks on the target student, while hazing can involve a single event, for example, a “rookie night.”
Both bullying and hazing are almost always prohibited in high schools, and schools will discipline students accused of both types of misconduct.
Where Hazing Typically Takes Place in High Schools
Many of us may associate hazing with college life, particularly with “pledging” to a fraternity or sorority. We might wonder how hazing takes place in high schools, where fraternities and sororities are much less frequently found (though they do exist). But hazing has been a problem at many high schools, not only in connection with high school fraternities and sororities but also in connection with:
- Sports teams, particularly varsity-level teams
- Music groups, such as chorus, orchestra, and marching band
- ROTC (sometimes called JROTC at the high school level)
- Drama, speech, debate, Scholastic Bowl, and other clubs or organizations
- Entry into the school (for example, freshman initiation)
Any school-related group that has some form of “initiation” or “rite of passage” for new members that involves any sort of physical or mental act that could potentially lead to harm is at risk of violating their school’s anti-hazing policies. And any student who helps during one of those “initiation” events is at risk of being disciplined for doing so.
Why So Many High Schools Have Banned Hazing
There are several reasons why almost all high schools have banned hazing and will discipline students found to have participated in hazing.
First, hazing has been responsible for a number of injuries and deaths. Students forced to consume large amounts of alcohol have been hospitalized or died from alcohol poisoning or from accidents that happened while they were drunk. Those who were made to drink enormous amounts of water have died from water intoxication. Sleep deprivation over time can lead to physical and mental health problems, including exhaustion and depression. Students who were expected to perform extreme physical stunts have injured themselves or been killed while doing so.
Schools realized that the negative effects of hazing on their students far outweighed the claimed benefits of having all members of “the group” go through the hazing ritual.
Second, with the deaths, injuries, and mental damage to students caused by hazing came lawsuits. Parents of students harmed by hazing sued high schools for allowing the hazing to take place, as well as for not taking any steps to prohibit or prevent it, and recovered large damage awards against the schools.
Third, the states got involved. Many states have passed anti-hazing laws that either make hazing illegal or require schools to adopt anti-hazing policies as part of their codes of conduct and to take steps to enforce those anti-hazing policies. Schools that turn a blind eye to hazing despite having policies against it may risk violating their state’s anti-hazing laws.
These factors and others have combined to make it so that almost all high schools – even those located states that have not yet passed an anti-hazing laws – have adopted policies prohibiting their students from hazing.
The High School Disciplinary Process Doesn’t Protect the Accused Student
When a student is accused of violating their school’s anti-hazing policy, it’s typically treated by the school the same way as any other code of conduct type of violation. In most cases, this means the school will investigate the allegation and conduct a disciplinary proceeding according to the school’s own written policies. The problem with these policies is that they are, for the most part, designed to protect the school, not the accused student. In fact, the accused student generally has fewer rights in school disciplinary situations than an accused criminal does when being prosecuted by the government.
This is where retaining an experienced student defense attorney can help. At the LLF National Law Firm, we understand the school disciplinary process. Our attorneys work with it every day in schools all across the country. And even though different high schools will have different policies and procedures, these policies and procedures will all have many things in common. As a result, we are quickly able to absorb each new school’s process and focus on finding the best way to defend our client, the accused student.
There are a number of ways the high school disciplinary process is stacked against the accused student. Take the burden of proof, for example. In criminal cases, we are all familiar with it: the accused must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In high school disciplinary cases, however, the burden is typically much, much lower: a student can be disciplined if the school finds that it’s “more likely than not” that the student committed the offense. Another way of looking at that is that if the school finds that it’s 51% likely the student did what they were accused of doing, the student will be disciplined.
The school investigation can be another area where the accused student can face hurdles. School administrators are not detectives. They may have had some rudimentary training in how to conduct a disciplinary investigation, but they typically have many other duties and do not conduct their investigations with the same rigor or attention to detail as a trained detective would. In addition, they may focus on only finding evidence that helps prove the allegations against the student and either intentionally or unintentionally fail to follow up on evidence that might help the student’s defense. As a result, it’s not unusual for the LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team to conduct our own investigation of the facts – to try to learn “the rest of the story” that could help our student client.
Hearing procedures may also favor the school and hamper the accused student’s defense. These can vary widely. In most cases, the accused student will be allowed to have an attorney present. But the role that attorney can play in any hearing may vary. Some schools will allow the student’s attorney to question and cross-examine witnesses. Others will require the attorney to “suggest” questions that the school official presiding over the hearing will then ask the witness, but only if the school official decides the questions are proper.
With the school having such a strong interest in protecting itself from potential liability (including, in some states, criminal liability for failing to protect against hazing), a student accused of hazing is fighting an uphill battle. The school is assuming the role of both prosecutor and judge, making it almost a given that the disciplinary process is going to favor the school. This is why it’s so important to be working with an attorney who has experience with a wide range of school disciplinary hearings, someone who has the experience to plan in advance how to best defend the accused student.
Sometimes, the school disciplinary process is so unfair that it violates the accused student’s basic due process rights. When this happens, it may be possible to sue the school for that violation. The LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team can help in these types of situations, even if we were not involved in the underlying disciplinary proceeding. If your student was accused of hazing and disciplined by their school, and you believe the school was unfair in the way it investigated the allegation or conducted the disciplinary proceeding, contact us. We’ll review your child’s case and help you decide whether a lawsuit is an appropriate step to take.
Disciplinary Consequences Can Be Severe
The main reason this is all such a big deal is that the school has a huge amount of discretion when it comes to disciplining students found to have committed hazing in violation of the school’s policies. Most school policies don’t assign specific penalties to specific violations. They leave it up to the person or panel in charge of the disciplinary hearing to determine what the penalty will be if the student is found responsible for the hazing misconduct. And while that penalty may or may not have to be approved by someone else at the school (such as the school board where the student is being expelled), in the vast majority of cases, the penalty that’s recommended is the one that’s imposed.
That means that a student accused of hazing might face any of the following penalties:
- Verbal warning, one that’s not on the student’s permanent record
- Written warning – on the record
- Loss of extracurricular activities (athletics, clubs, etc.)
- Probation for a certain period of time with no misconduct reports, and sometimes with the student required to perform community service or to take a course (such as an anti-hazing course)
- Suspension for a certain time, sometimes with community service or a course requirement, before the student will be readmitted
- Expulsion: permanent removal from the school
What can make this even more unfair is that when more than one student is accused in connection with a single hazing incident, the penalties imposed on those students can vary widely, even if their alleged misconduct was essentially the same.
Any disciplinary penalty that appears on the student’s permanent record can have long-lasting consequences. Colleges are more reluctant to accept students with disciplinary histories, even if their grades are stellar and they have participated in many extracurricular activities. Scholarships may be harder to qualify for if the student has a misconduct record. And with college being the next step on the journey of many high school students, a high school disciplinary record can have consequences that can affect a student for the rest of their life.
At the LLF National Law Firm , we understand how important it is to you and your student that their transcript does not include any indication that they were disciplined by their high school. Our efforts will be focused on making sure your child receives the strongest defense available under their school’s disciplinary policies and procedures.
Why You Need an Experienced Student Defense Attorney if Your Child is Accused of Hazing
School disciplinary investigations and hearing procedures are not like ordinary lawsuits or criminal cases. They essentially play by their own rules, which tend to vary from one school to another. If your child has been accused of hazing, you need the help of an experienced student defense attorney who understands these school policies and procedures, someone who is used to navigating the slightly-different path that each of these kinds of cases will take.
One important thing that an experienced student defense attorney can bring to your child’s case is the ability to understand things from the school’s perspective. Having defended many students in many disciplinary cases means your attorney can often propose a way to resolve the case in a manner that protects your child’s future, recognizes the school’s need to protect its students, and avoids the time and uncertainty that the hearing process brings. Having the ability to propose a resolution that is acceptable to you and your child as well as the school is perhaps one of the most valuable things an experienced student defense attorney can bring to this kind of a case.
The LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team Can Help
The LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team has years of experience defending the rights of high school students all across the country who have been accused of misconduct by their schools. Our experienced student defense attorneys understand the school policies and procedures that apply in school disciplinary cases, and where hazing is the issue we also understand the underlying state laws in states that have passed anti-hazing laws. We bring that experience and background to every school discipline case we accept.
Your child’s future is important. Trust it to one of our experienced student defense attorneys. We will fight for your child’s rights and do everything we can to defend them. Call the LLF National Law Firm Student Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to schedule a confidential consultation. We are here to listen and to help!