Lakeridge High School Hazing: A Violence Prevention Perspective

We begin this Teen Dating Violence Awareness month by sending positive thoughts to the students of Lakeridge High school.  Particularly, we’re thinking of the young girls of the dance team victimized in the hazing incident over the summer that triggered an outside investigation, media coverage, and will finally result in a “Choose Character over Bullying” assembly later this month. We hope that their Pacer community, from the students to school staff to parents, respond with love and support because we know from our work with teens that victims who speak out often experience more bullying than belief.

We also hope that this matter is taken seriously because hazing incidents are not just team building activities gone wrong. Historically, hazing and sexual violence are often connected.  In the case of the Lakeridge dance team, no physical or sexual violence was reported, though dance team members were reportedly forced to wrestle covered in chocolate and syrup before a group of student onlookers, called derogatory names, and asked to perform sexual favors.

The connection between hazing and sexual violence extends to their underlying cause: relationship models that focus on power-over versus power-sharing.  Power-over frameworks tell people they need to “know their place,” whether as a woman in a relationship, as a minority in a nearly all-white school, or as a freshman new to a high school team. They teach people that speaking up, acting with autonomy or standing up to those in power are synonymous with disrespect, acting out, or letting the team down. This can lead to abuses of power, such as senior athletes hazing freshman, which then remain shrouded in silence.

Power-sharing, on the other hand, teaches people to recognize the power that is given to them through existing structures or through various forms of privilege, and to share it with others.  The primary practice of power-sharing is to help lift others to an equal playing field through mutual respect and understanding.  Power-sharing can make teams better by ensuring that they are governed by respect, equality, and trust.

Preventing hazing and other forms of violence requires ongoing dialogue and community education

Fortunately, understanding the frameworks that lead to different types of interpersonal violence offers hope for violence prevention. Teaching our communities about power-sharing, how to break down power-over systems and lift others to equality can interrupt types of violence as seemingly varied as hazing, cyberbullying, and sexual assault.  That being said, culture change does not happen overnight.  It will not happen with one assembly.  It happens through accountability, ongoing practice, and modeling by adult role-models.

We are so excited that Lakeridge High School and the Lake Oswego School District are taking the first step in creating a more peaceful community.  And we encourage them to learn from the sexual and domestic violence prevention movement by creating opportunities to extend the dialogue all year long.  An exciting program for this work is the Green Dot, Inc High School program, which teaches bystander intervention for all types of bullying, harassment, and violence.