School reports ‘hazing’ incident
The Elk Valley RCMP is dealing with complaints of “hazing” at one of the secondary schools.
A few weeks ago, a member of the volleyball team was subjected to an initiation into the team, commonly known as “hazing.”
The RCMP said they are working with the school to try to stop this practice.
“We received a call a few weeks ago and the complainant informed us that there had been an incident involving a member of the volleyball team and the practice of “hazing” which we believe is some form of initiation,” said Sgt. Will Thien from the Elk Valley RCMP.
Sgt. Thien said that unless the victim is prepared to disclose more information, there is not anything the police are able to do.
“The practice of ‘hazing’ is, in my opinion, stupid, but from the police side of things we have to determine whether or not a criminal offence has taken place. The practice is not usually something we can charge people with and it may end up being something that the school needs to deal with.”
Sgt. Thien said the victim has not been willing to disclose information at this point.
“We need the victim to disclose things to us in order for us to continue our investigations, but we can’t force him to do that.
“It’s an educational process that needs to take place between the school and the parents. However, our communication with the school is ongoing. We have to handle it very carefully. These are kids we’re talking about.”
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