With the 2011 – 2012 school year about to get underway in West Central Alberta, students, educators and parents are all looking forward to another safe and secure 10 months of learning and extracurricular activities.
Unfortunately, as with the community at large, there are areas of concern when it comes to the safety of students.
One such area is the fall tradition of froshing and hazing, where, typically, older students make a game out of harassing new and younger students.
Usually a high school event, hazing can be more than just harmless pranks – it can sometimes be dangerous, damaging or even traumatic events for the victims.
In the Chinook's Edge School Division, which has 40 schools in West Central Alberta, there is a specific anti-hazing policy in place that applies to all students and all activities on school property.
The division defines hazing and froshing as any activities that result in bullying, humiliation or harassment, whether the student is in kindergarten, Grade 12 or any other grade.
In setting up its anti-hazing policy, the school division said it believes “hazing and froshing activities are detrimental to individual students and school climate and are therefore prohibited.
“The division believes that hazing is an abusive and humiliating activity and expects that students will neither initiate, participate or encourage hazing or froshing.”
Students found in violation of the anti-hazing policy can expect to face a variety of disciplinary actions, including, in some cases, suspension or even expulsion.
At the same time it discourages hazing, the division also supports the “concept of schools organizing supervised welcoming activities that engender a sense of belonging for all students.”
In the past hazing has been seen by some as a fun-filled right of passage. However, with schools placing more and more emphasis in recent years on the prevention of bullying, there is no place for froshing in schools these days.
Under Chinook's Edge's Harassment Policy #2-05, students who are victims of hazing, froshing or other similar harassment can make formal complaints to school principals. That, in turn, triggers an official investigation in which the principal or designate “shall deal with all formal student complaints in a timely fashion.”
Last year there was a number of serious early school year hazing incidents in other divisions in Alberta, including some involving serious assaults on young students.
A few Chinook's Edge students may, unfortunately, choose to ignore the rules in place against froshing this upcoming school year. In those cases, parents, caregivers and the community at large will expect Chinook's Edge officials to vigorously enforce the division's anti-hazing policy.
