Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Gone to Carolina Archive: On Their Own Time

Call me crazy but I just don't think that Chicago area school has the right to expell those girls for hazing.  The event did not take place on school grounds or on school time.
One may say this would be no different than if basketball players went out drinking and carousing the night before the state basketball tournament. I disagree.  I think that would have to do with whether students agreed to refrain from drinking while on the basketball team. If so, they should be kicked off the team.  But not expelled from school.  Unless....
Say the students rode a bus from Little Falls to St. Paul for the hockey tournament. Say arrangements were made through the school for the bus ride and there were parent sponsors on the bus and they all stayed together in the same hotel for the tournament.  And students snuck out the night before to hang out in a bar.  THEN it seems to me they could be expelled.  That sounds like a school-sponsored outing.
I don't think the school has any more jurisdiction over this hazing event than an employer would have over a bunch of employees who go paint the town red on Thirsty Thursday.  Seems like the employer could only hold sway over the employees if they had difficulty showing up for work or performing their jobs adequately the next day.
And I kind of wonder if the school, deep down, recognizes that.  They are expelling the students and keeping them from attending classes, but they are going to award them their diplomas on time.  So basically, a bunch of girls go out, drink while underage, sling some poop and guts and then get to take the rest of the year off from school and still get their diplomas. 
Doesn't sound like much of a deterrent to me.

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