SYRACUSE, NY (CNY Central) — The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office said Monday afternoon that it’s continuing to investigate an incident involving the Westhill High School men’s varsity lacrosse team that occurred last week.
Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick said his office is aware of the investigation that involves team members and other students. Fitzpatrick told the I-Team that his office will review information once the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office wraps up its investigation in the matter.
On Sunday, Westhill Superintendent Steve Dunham told CNY Central that Westhill High School students were “involved in making a bad decision involving a few other Westhill students off of school property” after school on Thursday evening. The specific details of the incident were not revealed.
Dunham said a parent reached out on Friday morning and there are minors involved.
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office became involved in the investigation on Friday. As of Monday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office said it has not made any arrests in the investigation, nor have criminal charges been filed.
CNY Central spoke with a lawyer and an expert who studies hazing in high school and colleges across America. Both said, whether this incident at Westhill High School ends up being hazing or not, there are instances of this behavior going under the radar every day.
Dr. Susan Lipkins started her research in 2003 after an incident with a football team near where she worked. She came up with, what she calls, “the blueprint of hazing.”
“You come in, you want to be part of a group or a team that has a tradition of hazing and you are hazed,” she explained. “You are the victim. The next year, you are the bystander watching as the newbies get hazed. And eventually, you’re a senior and now you have the status and the power and you feel like you have the right and duty to do unto others what was done to you. So you repeat the tradition.”
Most students, she said, suffer in silence over fears of what speaking out could mean.
“Probably thousands of hazings go on every day and they’re never reported,” said Dr. Lipkins. “So, every once and a while, one will be reported and that’s usually because it’s broken through a threshold such that the victim can’t take it.”
Greg Rinckey, a founding partner at the Tully Rinckey Law Firm, pointed out that by state law, hazing is a misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year in prison.
He said, “Civil liability it’s the same thing. If the school district knows or is aware, I mean, these are the type of cases that we’ve seen. Where the school district or coach or someone is aware that there’s this hazing going on… Whether it be on school grounds or even off school grounds. There could be liability for the district.”
