Bullying in Sports throughout High Schools

     Today Bullying is a very popular topic in todays society. Many news articles can't go a day without reporting an incident of bullying in the news. Bullying can be in many different forms such as racism and sexual harassment. High Schools is where bullying occurs the most since many are trying to fit in with the crowd be considered popular. Bullying occurs on sports teams as well where the upper class man haze or force the younger kids to do something against their will. In this society we should not stand for this and put an end to all terms and aspects of bullying with reporting the bullying incidents.

                                            image taken from sports conflict institute                                            

    There are multiple stories about hazing in high school but the most recent is about the Pine Richland football team. In 2020, the team was state champions and about a month later the whole coaching staff was fired due to accusations of hazing. The school district did an in depth investigation of the team and found incidents of hazing. I played high school football and to me it was very welcoming and taught me many life long experiences that i will be able to take with me, but some people take advantage of the kids and ruin this experience because they want a good laugh out of it. We should not stand for hazing on sports teams because this should be a safe space for students to enjoy themselves.

Addressing the Opposition

    Now many will say it was a couple of bad eggs in the basket when it comes to the choices coaches make. Is it really only a couple of bad people when 1.5 million students are victims of hazing every year. 48% of the students who were apart of a high school activity reported that they were subject to hazing events and that 98% would never report the hazing incident. Many will never report the incidents because it is considered "tradition" or initiation to be apart of the group. Since it is considered "tradition" they will say it isn't hazing and that the players encourage it. Many will admit to being hazed and joke about it since everyone had to go through but mentally it takes a toll on you. in the article, they state the statistics "24% of high school athletes reported having been hazed, as well as 16% of peer group participants, 8% of music/art/theater students and 7% of students in church groups."

    Hazing is not only just for males but females are also hazed in high school activities. 18% of females report being abused during hazing. Many are forced to do activities in front of their team and are humiliated in the process.

    The affects of hazing goes past the fun and jokes it is supposed to be. Hazing is meant to intimidate the new comers or degrade, and humiliate the individuals in front of others. It establishes the top leaders of the group and who is at the bottom for the year or years. It demoralizes the human being into nothing because to be apart of the "group" they need to take the punishment for the entertainment of others. The cycle will continue since when that individual is a junior or senior they will make the freshman go through it since they had to as freshman.

    Today we should not stand for bullying or hazing in any form. It can be as simple as making the freshman run 300s as the upper class man watch as they suffer. We should not allow this culture to continue and need to stand up in order to break this cycle. The cycle continues as long as we allow the hazing to continue. Us as a community and society should speak up if we know of hazing and protect the younger individuals because they are just trying to fit in. Hazing is still a form of bullying and we should treat it as bullying, speak up and other programs are put into place to combat bullying.