May 27, 2003 - 9:50 p.m.
The school board in Illinois that saw 31 of its senior students smear feces and mud and trash on underclassmen in a videotaped hazing ritual has expelled those students. Out, gone, done.
The students -- who will still get their diplomas, don't ask me why -- engaged in a ritual designed to mock and humiliate and destroy the dignity of people younger than them. What was to be an "initiation" soon became something far more serious, and some students even went to the hospital.
That's sick. Not sick because of the blood, or the feces or the trash and dirt and pain, but sick in that depraved way. Hitler sick. Jeffrey Dahmer sick. You know -- sick.
These kids had the opportunity to make an impact on the lives of people younger than they are, to welcome them into their group, and to show them how to be great human beings.
Instead, they called them names, beat them up and threw crap *ACTUAL crap* at them. What a waste of human being.
So here's why I'm writing all of this: Tonight, a friend of mine stopped by the house and gave me a picture with a note attached. The picture was taken during my senior and his freshman year and the note talked about how great our friendship was and how important that first year of high school was in forming our relationship. It talked about memories and how great they are and how our friendship will last until we both die.
It ended with a PS: "Don't send this back with all my grammatical errors corrected!"
He knows me too well.
Anyway, my point is this: the saddest thing about what happened in Illinois isn't that some high school seniors went out of control or that their parents bought the booze that helped them get there or that some high school juniors were beaten up and seriously injured. Those three things are awful, yes, but not the saddest thing from all of this.
The saddest thing for these seniors is that they won't ever have what my friend and I have. They won't know what it means to look up to someone younger than you. They won't know what it means to feel like you've known someone all your life, when it's been about four years. They won't know what it's like to have someone to talk to when you hurt or someone to laugh with when you feel good. They won't know the happiness that can be brought about by high school memories. They won't know what it's like to see almost all hope lost in someone's life and then cry with joy as you watch them bounce back and become the person you loved in the first place.
Nope, sorry. None of that for them. But, they will know misdemeanor charges, and expulsions. And they'll feel guilty everytime a high school reunion comes up or each time someone in college says, "Where'd you go to high school?" They'll get their diplomas, having fulfilled the academic requirements, but they'll be lost in life, because they haven't fulfilled any human requirements. They'll graduate from high school with great grades, but having learned absolutely nothing.
My friend will graduate with great grades and as a better person.
When I remember high school, I think of my friend, with whom I'm still close, and I smile. I think of the good things that happened and the bad things that happened, but how we were both there for each other during them. And I feel great.
They don't have that. How sad for them.
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