The Washoe County School District’s Board of Trustees on Tuesday discussed a new policy on hazing and voted to begin the process to officially ban it within area schools. The new policy would ban hazing within the district’s educational programs and activities, including sports and clubs. District officials said having a policy on hazing was overdue.
“Unfortunately, hazing is far too often seen as ‘boys will be boys, girls will be girls,’ and that it kind of has some quasi-acceptance, and that needs to end,” WCSD attorney Neil Rombardo said. “Given recent national issues last year, local issues, we thought it was time to address this.”
The proposed policy defines hazing as “any method of initiation into or affiliation with a student organization that endangers an individual physically or mentally, regardless if the person is a willing participant.” This can include activities involving physical harm, such as whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the elements or forced consumption of food, liquids or drugs.
It also includes activities intended to embarrass, harass or ridicule to create “psychological shocks,” including activities such as “public stunts and buffoonery, morale degradation, or humiliating games and activities.” The policy also includes methods for reporting and investigating hazing and when it’s reported to law enforcement.
Trustee Jeff Church took issue with the proposed policy, stating he was concerned it could apply to anyone who had “opinions” or someone “making a nice comment” toward a student.
“‘Any situation which adversely affects the mental health or dignity of the individual.’ Who decides that?” Church asked, reciting a portion of the policy. “My concern is that people act completely legitimately, but the individual says, ‘Oh that affects my mental [health]. I’m not comfortable with it.’ … Where do you draw the line, how do you define that?”
Judy Prutzman is part of WCSD’s department of civil rights compliance. She said WCSD would investigate reports of hazing to determine whether hazing actually took place.
“All of these definitions … would be reviewed by the individual investigating any reports of hazing,” she said. “It would be up to the investigator to apply the bullying criteria to determine if hazing occurred on a case-by-case situation.”
“I feel like we’ve got to get something in place to get the supports, counseling, whatever for the students engaging in this.”
“I’m not comfortable with this,” Church said. “We want to avoid the investigation. This policy is supposed to provide guidance to the reader. This is so vague as anybody could violate it for anything, and then one is subject to an investigation and one is found guilty for something they didn’t even know they did.”
Church said he understood the rest of the policy, but not the aspect of hazing harming mental health.
Rombardo said this policy has been adopted by several other schools and universities, including the University of Nevada, Reno. The addition is being made because the district’s bullying policy does not specifically discuss hazing.
“The purpose is to not avoid the investigation because we owe our students due process,” Rombardo said. “The purpose is to have a process, and this is the process. … Substantial evidence is required [to be found guilty of hazing] … not just as simple as somebody saying ‘I have subjective harm.’ The process for investigations is a multi-step process.”
Trustee Alex Woodley said the policy specifically describes hazing as “forced conduct,” which would exclude simple conversations between individuals.
“So this wouldn’t be someone outside of a student organization expressing an opinion?” Church asked.
“Hazing by definition does typically include initiation or affiliation with a group. It is typically done by a group towards a group,” Prutzman responded. “The other individual conduct you might be referring to would be currently addressed under [the bullying policy].”
Trustee Diane Nicolet said it is time the district adopted a hazing policy. Any policy will require a confidential reporting structure and training for staff and students, she added.
Trustee Colleen Westlake said that for students to be involved in hazing, something has to be going on in their lives that causes them to act that way.
“As much as we need to protect the kids that hazing or bullying is happening to, I feel like we’ve got to get something in place to get the supports, counseling, whatever for the students engaging in this,” Westlake said. “And in that way, I think we become healthier … I just can’t help but think that somewhere along the line, something is being done to these students or has been done to these students.”
Rombardo said training for faculty and staff is already in the plans. He added that the plan is to offer support to the offending students as part of the investigation and a safety plan for all students, similar to how the district deals with bullying issues.
The policy was approved unanimously, kicking off a 13-day public review period. The policy can be reviewed here.
