'Powder puff' hazing turns ugly
CHICAGO (AP) — A touch football game between suburban Chicago high school girls that turned into a brutal hazing is now the subject of investigation by police and school officials.
Officials at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook were examining videotapes taken by students who came to a local park Sunday to watch what had become an annual tradition — the "powder puff" football game between junior and senior girls.
Instead, they saw junior girls get beaten, splattered with paint and have mud and feces thrown in their faces. Five girls ended up in the hospital, one with a broken ankle and another who needed 10 stitches in her head.
School officials stressed that the game was not sanctioned and occurred off-campus without their knowledge.
"I guess there was some football involved, but then it was pushing, punching, hitting, putting buckets on heads ... showering people with debris and, according to one report, human excrement," said Northfield Township District 225 Superintendent Dave Hales. "It was hazing. It was deplorable treatment."
Officials say up to 100 students were involved in the incident, which occurred at a park in Northbrook, a well-to-do suburb about 20 miles north of Chicago.
Cook County Forest Preserve District police are investigating whether any criminal acts occurred. Forest Preserve District Police Chief Richard Waszak said students did not have a permit to use an open field in the park.
Northbrook Police Sgt. Tony Matheny said his department received calls about a fight in the park Sunday, but the teenagers ran away before police could talk to them.
Videotapes played on Chicago television stations show girls in yellow jerseys punching, slapping and dumping paint on other girls who are kneeling on the ground. Some spectators hoist cups of beer.
School officials were looking at tapes and photographs to identify students for possible discipline, school spokeswoman Diane Freeman said. Students involved in extracurricular activities and athletics must sign a code of conduct that requires them to behave well both on and off campus.
"There's nothing else we can do," Freeman said. "It's out of our jurisdiction. The courts and the parents will mete out punishment."
Glenbrook North Principal Michael Riggle said alcohol contributed to the violence, but he declined to give details.
The district used to sponsor a powder puff football game during homecoming but discontinued the event in 1977 after it became too rough.
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The misreporting here is that it was never meant to be a "football game."
That was a ruse. It was a hazing ritual.
Clips of this have been on the news.
If you saw them you know it was worse than the words above can describe.
Stitches are seen in the head of an unidentified Glenbrook North High School student involved in a weekend hazing event.
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I'm just thinking about our inhumanity.
Do you have a comment on this?