Westhill HS Hazing

[Marsh01]

For people who know and are familiar in the district its not a surprise to hear who was the ringleader

 

[PhatOrange]

The roster was pulled from schedule galaxy. Can see the 23/24 roster though.

 

[Jake]

For people who know and are familiar in the district its not a surprise to hear who was the ringleader

Nope.

 

[PhatOrange]

Fellow Westhill alum who is just stewing about all this. Hope the kid is ok more than anything and think they need to dismiss the new HC as collateral damage even if he literally had zero to do with specifics.

My out-of-state, LAX-playing kid sees it in the news and texts you “what’s up with your HS?” Sigh.

Can't agree at all with firing the coach unless he had prior knowledge.

 

[oldpinepoint]

The roster was pulled from schedule galaxy. Can see the 23/24 roster though.

Just google roster comes right up from Syracuse.com. Based on my sleuthing I have a good guess who it is

 

[Eric15]

Not asking to name names, but did I miss the name of the ringleader and his father in the news or did you hear through the grapevine? I recognize a lot of last names on that roster, but one jumps out that wouldn't surprise me in the least based on my interactions.

It hasn’t been announced in the news yet. I just heard it from a couple Westhill families I know. I personally didn’t feel comfortable saying the name because technically it’s still a rumor.

 

[Cheriehoop]

There are kids on WH that 100% would play at cba. Not the whole team, but they have talent.

I didn’t say that there was no young talent at Westhill but there’s plenty of young talent already at CBA too while there will be more openings with the greater number of seniors at Westhill leaving than at CBA also.

 

[CuseTG2003]

It hasn’t been announced in the news yet. I just heard it from a couple Westhill families I know. I personally didn’t feel comfortable saying the name because technically it’s still a rumor.

Thanks. I get it. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something publicly available.

 

[Marsh01]

It hasn’t been announced in the news yet. I just heard it from a couple Westhill families I know. I personally didn’t feel comfortable saying the name because technically it’s still a rumor.

its who you think it is and the parents of some of the kids who this happened too are not the parents you want to draw in the raffle.

 

[Jake]

its who you think it is and the parents of some of the kids who this happened too are not the parents you want to draw in the raffle.

Haha. Absolutely true. I don’t think the DA is going to be their biggest concern.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Yeah, and I think the ring leader and father have a problem on their hands. Would not be surprised if the dad is prosecuted for obstruction of justice for trying to intimidate a female whistleblower.

Real piece of work.

Like I said. The kind of person that does this probably raised by someone who would do this.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Westhill boys lacrosse coach addresses hazing incident for first time

Aaron Cahill took the boys lacrosse varsity head coach position at the beginning of this season.

www.syracuse.com

 

[nocohalo]

So they basically cosplayed as Dick Marcinko and Red Cell. Who thought that would be a good idea

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

A parent of one of the 11 boys is going to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper on his CNN show in a few minutes. It was the 3rd leading story in the show’s opening rundown. Wow.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Oh, man. I have a very different take on this. I apologize in advance.

One factor that would sway me toward the popular side of complete condemnation of this: the matter of safety. Was the gun real? Where did this happen? As noted upthread, the escapees—were they blindfolded and could have run into traffic/hazards, etc?

But, as dumb as this was, and as much as I condemn/abhor the idea of hazing, I’ve seen fake abductions on a bunch of sitcoms. To the extent that this was wrong, and traumatic, I’m struggling to recognize a real life scenario in this country where a team was kidnapped, so the plausibility contributing to that ‘trauma’ is something I discount a little.

Wrong, absolutely. Felony-wrong? That’s maybe where I’m not sold. Of course, if there were additional physical abuses I haven‘t yet read about, that’s another thing. The other thing to consider is the whole ‘tradition’ thing. If this is a known component of your ‘membership’ in a group, there seem to be ‘provisions.’ Don’t fraternities still brand members? That seems like a primitive and ridiculous requirement of membership and would be disallowed in just about any other context. [Google says it’s “optional.” Still, though. It persists as a rite of passage because members feel compelled to prove something as a component of belonging.]

Again, I’m not defending this. But, for some 17 and 18 year olds, when something is a ‘joke’ on sitcoms/movies, and you’re also used to a culture of YouTube pranks, this being a potential felony offense would prolly not occur to them.

 

[BomberOrange]

A parent of one of the 11 boys is going to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper on his CNN show in a few minutes. It was the 3rd leading story in the show’s opening rundown. Wow.

Thanks for the waste of time. No parent was interviewed.

 

[Bill Orange]

Thanks for the waste of time. No parent was interviewed.

Nice misleading chyron, CNN.

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

Thanks for the waste of time. No parent was interviewed.

Yeah, I was disappointed myself. I swear that Anderson said at the top of the show that a parent was going to be interviewed to talk about the community’s reaction. I guess he just meant Ryan McMahon.

Nice misleading chyron, CNN.

Yeah, that upset me. How about “Syracuse area”.

 

[Bill Orange]

Yeah, I was disappointed myself. I swear that Anderson said at the top of the show that a parent was going to be interviewed to talk about the community’s reaction. I guess he just meant Ryan McMahon.



Yeah, that upset me. How about “Syracuse area”.

“High School lacrosse players..” would have sufficed.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Nice misleading chyron, CNN.

Totally bogus.

They only make the freshmen shave their heads on the 1st road trip of the season.

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

Totally bogus.

They only make the freshmen shave their heads on the 1st road trip of the season.

I LOVE that you posted this! I’ve always been meaning to ask on this board about the buzz cut tradition & what point of the season they do it. I knew it was always early season but the 1st road trip makes sense. Are you saying they do it during the road trip or prior to? Any idea of the origin or year this tradition started?

 

[Eric15]

Oh, man. I have a very different take on this. I apologize in advance.

One factor that would sway me toward the popular side of complete condemnation of this: the matter of safety. Was the gun real? Where did this happen? As noted upthread, the escapees—were they blindfolded and could have run into traffic/hazards, etc?

But, as dumb as this was, and as much as I condemn/abhor the idea of hazing, I’ve seen fake abductions on a bunch of sitcoms. To the extent that this was wrong, and traumatic, I’m struggling to recognize a real life scenario in this country where a team was kidnapped, so the plausibility contributing to that ‘trauma’ is something I discount a little.

Wrong, absolutely. Felony-wrong? That’s maybe where I’m not sold. Of course, if there were additional physical abuses I haven‘t yet read about, that’s another thing. The other thing to consider is the whole ‘tradition’ thing. If this is a known component of your ‘membership’ in a group, there seem to be ‘provisions.’ Don’t fraternities still brand members? That seems like a primitive and ridiculous requirement of membership and would be disallowed in just about any other context. [Google says it’s “optional.” Still, though. It persists as a rite of passage because members feel compelled to prove something as a component of belonging.]

Again, I’m not defending this. But, for some 17 and 18 year olds, when something is a ‘joke’ on sitcoms/movies, and you’re also used to a culture of YouTube pranks, this being a potential felony offense would prolly not occur to them.

As I mentioned above, I want to see how the facts play out before making any definitive conclusions.

If a kid shop lifts, or gets caught smoking pot, or graffiti or something else young and immature, I'm all about keeping them out of the criminal justice system and using softer methods to get them back on track. That doesn't appear to be the situation here at all.

If the basic facts of the situation are correct, that they threatened a freshman (this is a boy 4 years out of elementary school) with a weapon, took him against his will, zip-tied him and put a pillow case over his head, put him in the trunk of a car, and then drove him to a remote area and left him there... if that isnt a felony, I honestly don't know what it is.

 

[DilemaCuse]

Not sure if previously mentioned but these boys did not see or learn from the movie Alpha Dog.
Thank god no one was seriously hurt.

 

[outoftownie]

I LOVE that you posted this! I’ve always been meaning to ask on this board about the buzz cut tradition & what point of the season they do it. I knew it was always early season but the 1st road trip makes sense. Are you saying they do it during the road trip or prior to? Any idea of the origin or year this tradition started?

30 years ago the head shaving was done in the hotel the night before the army scrimmage. Nothing like feeling the February winds of the Hudson River against a freshly shaven skull.

 

[FloridaCuse]

This ABC News article about an interview with a former teammate of the kids accused is from Thursday but I don't see it posted here.

Ex-teammate speaks on Syracuse high school students charged in hazing incident

A former teammate of the Syracuse high school students who surrendered to police for an alleged hazing incident shared his reaction to the news with "GMA."

abcnews.go.com