 This episode was prerecorded as part of a live continuing education webinar. On-demand CEUs are still available for this presentation through all CEUs. Register at allceus.com slash counselor toolbox. I'd like to welcome everybody to today's presentation on hazing prevention in high school and college. Now what I'm really going to focus on today because they're the two primary areas in that we see hazing in college and some in high school, we're going to be talking about the panellinic organizations as well as athletic organizations. And, you know, the scope is pretty broad for those. A lot of times you don't have to worry about hazing in, you know, science club or, you know, some of those other clubs. So what we're really looking about is looking at is as clinicians. If we're a school counselor or if we are a counselor on at a campus mental health clinic or if we are just a counselor in a community and we have a student come to us who's experiencing hazing, what can we do? How can we advocate? What do we need to do and what are our obligations? So we're going to define hazing, explore the purpose of hazing. You know, why do they do it? Identify alternatives to hazing. Explore the timeline for hazing prevention. Then we're going to spend a lot of time talking about the role of administrators, coaches, the panellinic council, student athletes, sorority and fraternity members and presidents and counseling departments. And then finally, we'll wrap it all up with what's called the hazing test, if you will. Questions that people can ask themselves to determine whether something is truly hazing. So what is hazing? It's any action or any situation created intentionally that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and risks emotional and or physical harm to members of a group or team, whether new or not. So this doesn't just have to be to new members regardless of the person's willingness to participate. So even if the person says, yes, I'm on board and I'll do this, it doesn't mean it's not hazing. One study found that 79% of NCAA athletes report coming to college with a prior hazing experience from high school or middle school. So hazing starts early. What are we talking about in terms of hazing though? What does that exactly look like? And there's a broad variety. Verbal abuse is one. Forced activities for new recruits to prove their worth to join. Being asked to perform acts that go against personal beliefs such as committing a crime or humiliating somebody else. A lot of times, you know, they'll say, okay, pledge you need to do this, that or the other in order to prove that you're one of us. Being asked to simulate sexual activities, being subjected to perceived physical danger, including beatings. I know paddling is a common hazing technique. Requirement to endure hardships such as staying awake for extended periods or extreme physical labor, coerced alcohol abuse and personal servitude or meaningless tasks. And there's a line, you know, there are some things that we do. When I was in my sorority as, you know, a newer member as a pledge, we were responsible for making sure that the house stayed straight. You know, we were responsible for going around and cleaning up after the sisters. Did we enjoy it? No. Did it make us feel humiliated or embarrassed? No, it was just something that we did. And was it servitude? A little bit. But I think it would be hard. You'd be hard pressed to call that hazing. There were other things that I heard about and experienced as a pledge and, you know, from my friends who were also pledges that were much different and clearly crossed the line into hazing. So things that we need to know about hazing. And remember, you want to keep going back to this definition. Does whatever the organization is doing, the group is doing create intentionally create embarrassment, harassment or ridicule and or risks emotional or physical harm. Okay. So, you know, that's what we want to keep coming back to. Instead of trying to identify each specific incident and go, well, is that hazing or isn't that hazing? Because you can't make a rule book that says, okay, these 10 things are hazing and these 10 things are not. You'd have, you know, 100 things and more on both lists. So we can't possibly get that specific. We want to help people develop a general guideline, just like we do with our ethics, a general guideline of is this ethical, okay behavior to be doing in this group. Okay. Hazing facts, any setting in which total respect for everyone's dignity is not present can lead to a hazing climate or environment. So thinking about schools, thinking about colleges, thinking about residence halls, thinking about even workplaces. You know, hazing does happen in workplaces. We need to help everyone there respect one another's dignity. So what are some ways that we as clinicians can do that? Administrators, and while you're thinking about clinicians, I'll talk about administrators have the right or the responsibility to make sure that a message is communicated from the top down that hazing is not going to be permitted and that each person is valuable in and of themselves, the inherent worth of the human being. And it's the administration's responsibility to communicate that every student in this school is of value. Every student in this school deserves to have be treated in a dignified manner. So that's what administrators can do and they can also be on alert for signs of hazing. They can educate about what hazing is, but we can also, and this is where clinicians kind of step in. We can assist in developing culturally responsive services in the school, culturally responsive teaching methods in the, as well as making sure that how we approach students is dignified and culturally responsive to them and help everybody learn like we talked about last week, help everybody learn to appreciate one another's differences. None of us is exactly alike. We all have differences. So if we can embrace one another's differences and we can be champions for one another, it's going to reduce the likelihood that hazing is going to happen. If we respect one another's dignity, we're not going to be willing to humiliate them. Severity is not always measured in observed harm and, you know, it's important to remember and if you've worked with abuse victims or survivors before, this is not new to you. But some hazing victims report that the mental hazing they endured was far worse than any physical abuse that they endured. And I can tell you that that's true. There are a lot of things that can happen that really mess with your head. And when you're wanting to join a group, whether it's a sorority, a fraternity, a sports team, whatever it is, when you're wanting to join this group, the power that they have to really whittle away itself esteem and make you second guess yourself and make you second guess whether you're good enough is huge. So it's important for us to recognize that we're not just looking for black and blue marks. We're not just looking for a student who's passing out because of physical exhaustion. We're looking for that student who's starting to withdraw. We're looking for that student who reports that they have been told that they were fat, ugly, stupid in order to be loved or accepted in this group. They had to lose 30 pounds or be able to bench press twice their weight or whatever it is. So we want to look at the mental chastisement that goes on. It's important for us to remember from a trauma-informed perspective that earlier trauma can make what seems like a prank or a minor thing to most emotionally distressing to others. If someone was a victim of a home invasion robbery, for example, when they were younger and then they go to college and one of the pranks is the older members of the group decide to spook them or make them stay in a haunted house or something. I'm kind of grasping here, but you can see how earlier abandonment issues, earlier traumas can be triggered by this situation. People who have abandonment issues from childhood may have really strong reactions if they feel like they are not going to be accepted into a particular group. So like with everything else, preemption and prevention is much more effective than reaction. You know, once it gets in there and it gets ingrained, it's harder to deal with. So it's really important to educate all of the clubs and all of the groups and all of the students about dignity, respect, communication skills, conflict resolution, all that kind of stuff to prevent hazing. Hazing is often denied by using aliases and calling it pranks, stunts, antics, traditions, initiations or rites of passage. If you've been in a group of any sort before, you've probably heard at least some of these. If you've been on a sports team, you've probably heard some of these. You know, law enforcement officers will do some of the same things. They'll pull pranks on each other and do stunts and they call it that instead of calling it hazing. But in a lot of ways, well, it often does qualify as hazing. Remember, alcohol reduces inhibitions and the ability to resist or protest. So if you take all of the emotional needs that are going into this person wanting to belong to this group, you combine it with alcohol. When they may have less ability to resist and the perpetrators may have less filter on them about, okay, this is probably a bad idea. You know, it just combines to make a really ugly mess. So alcohol awareness is important. You know, I'm also aware that people on college campuses are not not going to drink. So making sure that they are fully aware and cognizant of what's going on where there's a power imbalance. There's a risk of coercion and there is going to be a power imbalance. If you are part of a sports team, there's going to be a coach. There's going to be a team captain. That's the way those teams work. If you are in a club, there's going to be a club president and secretary and treasurer. They have more power than the regular members. But how do we address that power imbalance to keep it from being abused? And education is the key. We need to make sure that we help the leaders learn how to become team leaders, learn how to become effective communicators in order to get the job done. Instead of feeling like they have to rule with fear, they learn how to rule with respect or lead, I shouldn't say rule, lead with respect. So what's the difference between hazing and bullying? They both sound pretty awful. The intersection of bullying and hazing is similar in that motivation for bullying and hazing is often identity based. If you want to be part of this group, you have to be able to deal with this in terms of hazing. In terms of bullying, the identity is we are better than you and so we can pick on you. We can make your life miserable. We don't want you as part of our group, but since we as a group are superior, we can make life miserable. An imbalance of power exists in both bullying and hazing. You don't see someone that's typically been quiet and sheepish come out and all of a sudden become a bully. It usually doesn't happen. So there's some sort of imbalance of power where the bully tends to feel like they have more power or they feel like they need more power. They may feel inadequate. They may feel nervous. So they use anger and force and bullying in order as bravado, so to speak, in order to protect their fragile inner selves. But there is an imbalance of power, whether it's bravado or it's real, it's there. Left unchecked, each can contribute to an environment where the behavior is acceptable. So if we don't step in as clinicians, teachers, parents, organization leaders and say no, then there's going to be often a problem because the culture will start to develop. And it's that creep. If you've got kids, you kind of know you've been through the creep before. You know, when you've got my kids, for example, will have, they'll clean their room and there's a specific set of things that I want to see done when their room is clean. And I'll look at their room and it'll be great. And then they'll start letting something slide a little bit and then slide a little bit more. And then until it's, they're only getting the job halfway done. You don't really notice it because it's, they kind of creep past that boundary of doing okay. My daughter's kind of struggling with that right now with doing the dishes in the kitchen. She used to do them, put them away and everything. And then she did them, but wasn't putting them away. And now she's doing them, not putting them away, but she's not getting the dinner dishes done. So we're just kind of creeping towards incompletion. The same thing happens with hazing and bullying. You know, you see, initially maybe they're having the pledges or the new people do some menial tasks, like for example, keeping the house clean. Okay. And then they decide, all right, we're going to have them do this too. And they start adding on more menial tasks and decide, you know what, they need a harder challenge. So we're going to see, you know, everybody in the group has been able to do this and been willing to do this. So let's see what we can do to weed people out. You know, what are they actually willing to do to be part of this group? And that's where the creep kicks in and we need to rein it back in. We need to have some hard lines in the sand about acceptable behavior. Both hazing and bullying are precursors to more destructive, hateful behavior. It just, it's going to happen that way. Bullying and hazing are different because bullying excludes the target from the group, whereas hazing is a ritual or process imposed upon a person who wants to be part of a group. They're also different because bullies tend to act alone or in a very small group like a bully and two or three friends. But hazing usually involves a group, team or organization. If you want to be part of this, then you've got to take your lumps. One of the things that we want to look at from a clinician's point of view in terms of intervention, if we hear about hazing, we know we can be pretty confident that it's not just one person or two or three people. There's a culture that is supporting this hazing within this group, maybe the whole sports team or the whole athletic department, etc. So there's a bigger issue we need to address to help make that go away or to help intervene. Now, if you're not part of the school staff, if you're not a school counselor at that school, that gets a little sticky. So we need to talk about how can we help the student advocate for themselves with administration, what are going to be the consequences. We're going to talk about some of the reasons hazing and bullying aren't reported, but specifically hazing today. So how do they justify hazing? We think there's no way we would ever ask somebody to do something that would embarrass them and humiliate them. So how can other people think it's okay? Sometimes there's a moral justification. They say there's a social reason for it. If they go through this, then it creates stronger bonds to the brotherhood or the sisterhood. And it builds unity among the team because we've all been through it and we can all commiserate about how awful it was, but how much stronger we are since we came out the other side. So the question I would pose to you is what other things can we do to help groups create bonds and build unity? Does it have to be something embarrassing and shameful where it's a secret you share with everyone, which keeping secrets is another one of those triggers for people who've been traumatized as children that can really activate some trauma stuff during hazing. But what can we do to help people bond? Think about groups that you've bonded with. Think about groups that you share strong ties to and you just really enjoy being a part of and part of your identity kind of is there. And that can even be think about our careers. We went through college together. We all had to go through qualifying exams together. We all had to do internships, not necessarily in the same place, but we've all been there. We've all done it and we can share similar experiences and there's something of a unity among us, you know, as clinicians, even if we have never met, we share some similar experiences that create some bonds. And obviously, people in your community with a similar background, you often have similar bonds and unity with those people. So yeah, retreats and team building are excellent ways that we can work at developing unity. Euphemistic labeling, sometimes they call it team building, but it's not. So we want to look at, you know, if we're building this team, you know, how is it enhancing every single person, the senior members of the group as well as the junior members of the group? How is it enhancing every single person within it? That's team building, building everybody up, not having this one group over here trying to develop something in the newcomers or whoever is being hazed. They can use the advantageous comparison. We're going to battle, you know, we're especially with sports teams, you know, this is a battle. We've got to go and we've got to win these games so I have to make sure that you've got the stuff to push through it. Well, there's lots of other ways to see if they've got the stuff and, you know, spring training is one of them. Diffusion of responsibility and normative conformity. I kind of put these both together. Diffusion of responsibility is when you say everybody else is doing it. Well, that doesn't necessarily make it right. You know, I know the college that I went to, the university that I went to, the Greek organizations within that university all engage, well, almost all. I don't know all, but for the most part they did engage in hazing. So was nearly everyone doing it? Yeah, I think so because I would talk to friends who are at different sororities and different fraternities and they'd have all, they'd all have examples of hazing that was going on. So that was probable. It doesn't make it right just because it's being done. So that's diffusion of responsibility saying everybody else is doing it. So there must not be anything that bad with it. You know, check in with your spidey senses. Does it feel head, heart and gut honesty? Does it feel like it's the right thing to do? And then normative conformity is also that avoiding personal responsibility. You know, somebody else, if it's a bad, if something bad is happening, somebody else will tell administration. I don't have to do it. So I will wait for somebody else. I'll wait for the team captain to put a stop to it. I will wait for somebody to stand up. It's not my job. So how can we get, and one of the ways that as clinicians we can work with this and even coaches, how can we get people to accept responsibility and be aware of what true norms are? One of the ways we get people to accept responsibility is by making sure that everyone's held accountable for what happens. Just because you didn't partake in it, if you knew about it, you're still complicit in what happened. So it's important to make sure that it's communicated, that there is a hard line in the sand here. And have them know what true norms are. Now, again, hazing may be a norm for the sports teams or the clubs or whatever. That doesn't necessarily make it right. So we want to have them also ask themselves, is this something that I would be proud of if my parents knew that I was doing it? Disregard or distortion of consequences. If they say, you know, how can it be hazing? Nobody was hurt. Well, number one, not all of the injuries are physical. Some of them are emotional. Some of them are very emotionally traumatizing. So let's think about an athlete on scholarship. You know, if they may fear that if they make too many waves that they'll get kicked off the team, which may mean they'll lose their scholarship, which means, you know, a whole bunch of bad mojo for them. So sometimes people are in positions where they feel disempowered to even speak up. You may have a sorority member who's paid her dues, bought a meal plan and lives in the house. So her housing is wrapped up in that. All of her funding for her meals is wrapped up in the sorority. So if she makes waves and is concerned that she's going to get kicked out of the sorority house, then she may not say anything. Even if, for both the athlete and the sorority member, they may have significant trauma from whatever is going on, but they're not going to speak up. So then the consequences don't become known. The consequences are hidden and buried. The third example I can give you is a team member who dropped out because he changed his mind. You know, sometimes you'll be going through the pledge period or, you know, training or whatever it is for your group. And all of a sudden a player or a member quits coming. And instead of pursuing it, a lot of times the thought is, well, so-and-so just change their mind. They don't want to be part of this group anymore. And they may, and my experience has been, if the group knows that Hazing's been going on and thinks that there might be a connection between this person dropping out and the Hazing, they don't pursue it. They just say, well, he changed his mind. So we want to be alert if somebody drops out instead of continuing on what caused that dropout. Displacement of the responsibility. We're just carrying on tradition. Our predecessors did it. So if they did it, then, you know, it's incumbent upon us. We're expected to do it. So if we're not supposed to do it, then they, it needs to come down from on high. Or they can be intentionally uninformed. We don't have a problem with Hazing here. I don't want to know about it. So this is the coach or the house mom or the president that says, you know, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, I don't hear or see anything. Even though they have a good suspicion it may be going on, the team knows or the group knows that they need to keep it on the down low. Surreptitious sanctioning is the wink and the nod. You know, yeah, I know you're not going to do that. Wink, wink. Dehumanization. Perception of the members as less than through the use of masks, costumes, etc. For example, making them dress up like dogs or wear a dog collar and crawl around on all fours. That's dehumanization. An attribution of blame is another huge one that I see blaming the victim by saying, well, you agreed to it. You knew what you were getting into when you pledged. You knew what you were getting into when you accepted your scholarship here. So it's important to pay attention to that, to make sure that the victim is not getting blamed for, for what's happened. So what's the impact of hazing? Physical, emotional or mental illness. So we're just going to kind of lump that together. People can start experiencing depression, PTSD, anxiety issues, anxiety about going to the group, anxiety about what's going to happen next. Depression, a sense of hopelessness and helplessness because they don't feel like they can get out of this situation. Or if they step out of the situation because of the hazing, they may feel like they failed. And again, hopelessness and helplessness because they weren't able to join this group that they really wanted to. Physical issues can come as a result of hazing. For example, if they're told to eat three live goldfish, please don't do that. That's inhumane and gross. But if they're told to do that and they do, they could get ill. But you can also see physical illnesses coming out as stress related. Eating disorders among both males and females are not uncommon. The group telling them that you have to be a certain weight or you have to have a certain physique in order to be part of our group. And I saw it in both fraternities and sororities where I came from where there was a strong emphasis on physical appearance and how that represented the house. Substance abuse kind of goes along with eating disorders, laxative abuse, the use of steroids and sometimes just using drugs in order to numb the depression and anxiety and the pain. Other people can also develop some substance abuse issues because they start drinking under pressure from the group. And they mess up their neurotransmitters because we know that that can happen. And then it becomes more of a problem because they feel like they need to drink in order to feel okay. People experience lowered self-esteem from rejection or from doing some of the things that go counter to what they ever thought they would do from being humiliated. Suicide, poor grades, withdrawal from other activities, sleep disruption, a loss of sense of control and empowerment. If you were in the Greek system or even if you weren't, I'm sure you knew somebody who was in the Greek system. Same thing with athletics. It takes an enormous amount of time. And if that part of your life is where the hazing is going on, where the unpleasantness is happening, then it can feel very disempowering. If you feel like you can't stand up, you can't make it stop and you're going to be subjected to this. Relationships with friends, significant others and family often suffer because the person is starting to get depressed, anxious, withdrawn. Post-traumatic stress, as I said, and loss of respect for and interest in being part of the organization. So if it happens for too long at a certain point, somebody may say, you know what? No. I'd rather not do it if it's going to be like this. There are a significant proportion, not a majority, but a significant proportion of college athletes who actually walk away from athletics and because they're just not interested in it anymore. The hazing was too bad and they didn't feel like continuing on that path despite the consequences. So hazing myths. Hazing helps with team building and bonding. No. Hazing erodes trust within group members. If you don't know who's got your back, if you don't know who has your best interest at heart, if you're waiting for somebody to do something humiliating to you, you can't trust the people that are around you. Another myth is that it instills humility in new members. Humility and humiliation sound alike, but they are extremely different. Humiliation is a terribly painful and destructive emotional state. It's an external thing. So other people humiliate us. We can feel humiliated by what they say or they think of us. If you're alone on a desert island, you can't feel humiliated. You can't feel shame and embarrassment if you're all by yourself. So humiliation comes from outside and in the eyes of others, you know, what you think they think about you. And hazing promotes humiliation. Humility, on the other hand, is a relief. It's when individuals are able to gracefully accept that there are limits to their power and importance. It's an internal thing created when your heart, soul, and mind are not obsessed with yourself. You realize, you know, humility, another word is kind of being humble, admitting that you're not perfect, admitting that you can't fix everything. So associated feelings with humility, when we build that up in people, they start to get curious about what other options are out there, about other people that could help them. They become engaged because they realize they can't do it all on their own. So they need to reach out and make connections. And they may develop more openness and acceptance. So helping people learn the difference between humiliation and humility is another really important step. Humiliation does not produce humility. Hazing establishes a hierarchy for leadership. Well, sorta, it kinda does. It does create a hierarchy. But the myth here is that it's for leadership. When you lead by fear, fear-based leadership turns members' attention inward instead of outward. If you go to work every day and you're always worried that you're gonna get sued or you're gonna get a pink slip or fired or written up or whatever, you're going to be worried about yourself. You're not gonna be worried about the group. You're not gonna be worried about connecting with them. You're gonna be worried about covering your own butt. Members who are led by fear go into survival mode. They are no longer interested in the group's outcome. They're concerned with staying in the group and not stepping on toes. So think about, again, that athlete that's on scholarship. If they are led by fear and they go into survival mode, they're concerned about staying on the team. And they're concerned about, you know, their scholarship. But they're less concerned about what happens to the group. They're just in cover my butt mode. They don't want to rock the boat and they're afraid of what's gonna happen. So they're trying to pacify the humiliators, if you will. Leading with fear breeds anxiety, cynicism, distrust and intimidation. So as clinicians, one of the things that we can do when we consult with sports teams, clubs, groups, organizations is help everybody understand how to lead with respect or lead by respect instead of lead by fear. And help leaders and future leaders develop the tools in order to do this. So they start understanding from the get-go the best way to help form bonds and create unity among their organization. Respect-based leadership creates members who look outside themselves and focus on bettering the group. So again, think about a supervisor that you worked for, for example, that led by respect. And how much more willing were you to go the extra mile to help out your team when there was respect there, when somebody said thank you, when somebody gave credit where credit was due, when you all respected one another with your inherent flaws. It's a lot easier to be part of a group when everybody recognizes and respects one another for who they are as who they are. So common reasons, hazing is not reported and we can really intervene a lot here. The school year is about to start. I know hazing is gonna happen again, but I don't know what to do. Well, that's an obvious one. We need to make sure that there's an educational program during orientation, whether it's high school orientation or college orientation, sports team orientation. There needs to be education about what hazing is, why it's not okay, and how to report it if it happens. I don't know who I can trust or talk to about my concerns. That should be covered in the educational presentation, but also make sure that it's posted somewhere. Just like in our facilities, we have to have an ombudsman number and the patient rights posted conspicuously. There should be something similar on college campuses and high school facilities for students to know who they can call, who will listen to them and take them seriously. I'm not sure how to deal with the fear of becoming an outcast. Well, as clinicians, we'll work with this a fair amount because if they are trying to become part of a team and they report hazing, initially that is not going to go over really well. We need to help people develop the skills they need and be aware of what may happen. I don't want them to be surprised if you say, oh, it'll be okay. Just report it and then everything will stop and be fine. No, that's probably not it. We need to help the person know what to expect and plan on how to deal with it so they can look themselves in the mirror and they can feel good about themselves but also rejoin the group. The group itself, like I said, hazing is a group activity. If one member of the group reports hazing, that tells us that we really need to go and work with that whole group. We're not going to single somebody out going, okay, John Smith over here was doing the hazing. We're going to want to go in and do an educational presentation for the entire team and potentially or group and potentially institute some sort of monitoring so we can change the behavior and the culture of the group because the culture condoned it. If it happened, the culture condoned it. I'm newer to my organization or team so how do I know who my allies are? Again, we want to have something posted. We want students to know or employees to know where they can turn for help and assistance when things get tough if they feel like there may be harassment or bullying. Human resources deals with that a lot but this is important to make sure that people know and as far as members on the team, trust is earned. So hopefully the coach or the team leader is going to do some early team building and trust building activities in order to help everybody start feeling like they can trust each other and they've got allies. If I report hazing, it won't be handled right. This is a possibility which is why as administrators, leaders, clinicians, we need to step in and all work to develop the hazing policy so when it gets reported, it does get handled right. If there is a good policy in place, then it will be handled well. By intervening in the hazing, I could get emotionally or physically hurt. Well, that's true and it's important as leaders that we make sure that it's a safe environment for our group members. But the group is going to get angry if hazing is reported. So there's a fine line that needs to be walked and again after hazing is reported, when an intervention needs to happen, we need to look at the whole group, not just a couple identified people and going in and saying no, no, no, that wasn't okay and thinking that everything's going to change is foolhardy. It's a culture so we're going to need to implement some policies that are monitored by if it's a sports team, by the coach, maybe if it's another group by the president or someone else who is willing to supervise it. I don't want to rock the boat on tradition. People hide behind tradition and I typically say if the tradition is hurtful, maybe it needs to change and what happens about rocking the boat and what does it mean to you to maybe break a tradition? A student may say, I don't know how to stop the hazing without tarnishing my team or organization's reputation. If the hazing policy is written correctly and well, then yes, the team is going to be brought under scrutiny by somebody somewhere, but it's a learning moment, it's a teaching moment and it doesn't necessarily have to tarnish the reputation. Now, if the hazing ends up killing somebody or causing somebody to commit suicide, that's certainly going to tarnish the team or organization's reputation. So we want to look at short-term pain of being under scrutiny and getting called on the carpet versus long-term what could happen. My team or organization doesn't recognize that what we're doing is hazing. So it's up to us to educate. Enough said. If I report it, my membership will be revoked. There need to be clear whistleblower policies that support people in taking steps in reporting potential hazing. Not everything that gets reported is going to be hazing. Sometimes it's going to be somebody who doesn't like something, but it doesn't really rise to the level of causing embarrassment, humiliation, etc. So it has to be reported, it has to be investigated so people feel comfortable coming forward. Like if you report in your organization, if you report sentinel events, that's really scary to do. If you report a sentinel event happening, used to be people wouldn't report them because they were afraid they were going to lose their license. And now they've realized that that's not a good way to go. So there's this sort of amnesty thing. If you report a sentinel event, we're going to learn from it and we're going to take corrective action, but you're not going to be fired for it in most cases. So that's how they started getting people to report more sentinel events. You got in a whole lot more trouble if you didn't report one than if you did. I tried speaking up before and nothing changed. I feel helpless. That indicates to me that there is potentially a flaw in the follow through of the process for addressing the hazing. So maybe there was just a course and everybody had to take on hazing after it was reported and then there was no follow through. So we want to look at what were you hoping would change and how can we, is that something that we can make happen? Remembering everybody has their different ideas of what hazing looks like. So we have to have some understanding. There are going to be some things that you don't like to do, but you have to do when I worked in fast food as a new person. I wasn't able to run the cash register and stuff yet. So I had to mop the floors and clean the bathrooms. I didn't like doing it, but it was something that I had to do as a new person because I didn't have the other skills yet. So we want to look at was it hazing or was it just something that needed to be done or necessity? I don't know how to manage losing friendships and respect of those in charge over this and I think that will happen. And that's a reasonable fear. It is. So we want to talk about what other friendships you have. We want to talk about, you know, that knee-jerk reaction is often to say, well, if they're true friends, they're still going to like you anyway. Well, even if they're true friends, they're probably going to be angry for a bit. So we want to help people figure out what is their support system outside of this group and, you know, what is important to them, the hazy, if you will, in terms of respect. Whose respect is important? Do they value the coach's respect over their own self-respect? What would their parents say if their parents found out? Do they value the coach's respect over their parents' respect? So we want to look at who they're wanting respect from and whether that respect is earned. I don't want to say anything because I'm ashamed of what I did to join my organization or team. And this is very possible. If we allow people to make reports about hazing anonymously, it's harder to investigate. Yes, it is. However, it also can help some people feel like they're a little bit more empowered after they've done some things that they kind of regret it. I'm the only one who thinks this is a problem. A lot of times there are five other people thinking this is a problem, but nobody wants to step up and say there's a problem. So everybody thinks they're the only one. So it's important to normalize the fact that generally when something feels like it's going wrong in an organization, you feel like you're the only person who sees it as a problem. But it's likely there are a bunch of other people who just haven't had the courage to say something yet. My team or organization is my support system and I can't afford to lose that. Same thing like we talked about with the friendships, help them figure out where their other support systems may lie. I'm at school on scholarship. How do I make sure it isn't compromised? It's important that athletic departments have policies for, you know, against hazing, but also to protect student scholarships so they don't, if they're whistleblowers, they don't lose their scholarship. What are our obligations? We need to understand why hazing happens. We can't intervene unless we understand why. We need to provide education on an individual group, institution and community level in writing. So that's a lot. But, you know, you can hit the individual group and institution kind of all at once, if you will. When I was at the University of Florida, I had one class on drug and alcohol awareness that all of the student athletes were required to take. So it was a whole semester class, but everybody was required to take it. So we were able to communicate it institutional policies, but that group also had to go through it and obviously the individuals in the group were going through it. So we were able to hit those three right there. And we also want to put it out in the community about what hazing is and why it's not okay. So it filters down to the high schools that are going to be sending future students to the college that hazing is not okay. Ideally put it in writing, especially when it is on a group or team that you're supervising or you're a part of, a hazing free pledge, however you want to put that. Ensure participants have full participation and ownership in hazing prevention efforts, including education, implementation and adjudication. It's good if you have members from the athletic department, members from the panel in a council, members from the at large educational community sitting on the council or board that reviews any complaints. It's important to make sure that everybody feels like they have a say in it and nobody feels like the administration is doing this to us. Everybody, they have a jury of their peers, so to speak. Have clearly defined sanctions for hazing activities developed with the members so you can sit down with all of those peers and say, okay, what do you think the consequences need to be? Establish a means for reporting, investigating and adjudicating it. Ensure that policies are followed. It's easy for policies to kind of get looser over time. So there needs to be somebody that is looking out for following these policies, needs to be somebody that's looking out for hazing or hints about hazing. And that requires advocacy and a lot of times that will fall to student mental health and that's cool. Advocacy is something that we really enjoy doing, so we need to make sure that we keep bringing up this message periodically. Make caring about each other a high priority for success and talk about what it means to care, regardless of what kind of group it is. Make sure that it's a priority among group members to care about one another. Now, it doesn't have to be, you know, over the top, but it can be encouraging one another, giving each other a pat on the back. If somebody's having a bad day, you know, helping them out, doing what you would want done to you, go figure. Or, you know, imagine this is your little brother, you know, what would you want somebody to do for him? Ensure members know that membership requires strong work ethic, positive attitude and initiative. If you put your heart and soul into something, if you have a strong work ethic, you're going to have bonds to whatever that is most of the time. If you have a positive attitude, that's going to help bring people together. And initiative, you know, if you feel like you've contributed something, if you feel like you've been able to make a difference in something, you're going to have a stronger bond, which is really what we're talking about here, trying to get group bonds to be strong. Model anti-hazing behaviors demonstrate an emphatic position about treating everyone with total respect at all times from first contact, including recruiting. And, you know, whether it's students that are going to look at a university to see if it's where they want to go or coaches going out to recruit someone, there has to be respect at all times of those individuals. The same thing when people go around to pledge the various fraternities or sororities, making sure during rush week that people are treated with respect. Conduct open discussions to help you understand your team's views and activities. So let's talk about what's going on, what does, you know, the first week look like. Ideally, the beginning, the first week, the first month is very regimented in order for leaders and administrators, supervisors to have a good handle on what's going on. Because a lot of times hazing happens in that first month or two, not always, you know, it doesn't have to always happen that way. But it gives us a chance during that first month or two to build those bonds and build that trust so everyone respects each other enough that they're not going to want to humiliate one another. Conduct team leadership workshops and regular meetings for your captains to give them knowledge and skills necessary for being successful and effective team leaders. Include the athletic departments and your team's responsibilities and expectations to fulfill their roles as captains. The same thing if you have a president of a club. You need to train people. We're not born with leadership skills. I mean some have some innate abilities, but we need to learn how to be good and effective leaders. So it's important to make sure that those resources are available. And it's important to make sure that leaders understand what their responsibilities are. Lead with respect. Leaders who put their group first earn the group's trust. And where there's trust, there's clear and open communication. Another component of respect is being a team player. Look to the others in your group for ideas and feedback. Ask for help with your weaknesses and admit when you're wrong. These are things that leaders, team captains, whatever position they hold need to learn because it's hard to take that step. It's hard to feel like, okay, I'm a leader. A lot of people feel like when they're a leader, they're supposed to be perfect and strong all the time. And in reality, that's just not going to happen. So making sure that leaders know that they can be human. Explain that passive participation makes one a contributor and reinforce the message that what counts most is the group members work and dedication. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to do this, but if you come, if you give 110% and you're dedicated to this group, then you're a part of it. Ensure members know that you will take reports of hazing seriously and will support them in addressing it. Ensure initiations because it happens. Regardless of the group, there's often some sort of initiation ceremony, but they need to be designed to instruct new members in the principles of an organization and can be ceremonial. But they're learning opportunities and they can be ceremonials. They can be candlelight vigils. They can be whatever, but they don't involve humiliation or degradation. And they educate the person to help them know how to become more a part of an organization. Just like we go through orientation when you start a new job somewhere, you know, you're learning all the rules and regulations of that place. If you join a sorority, you know, you have to learn all of the bylaws and rules of the sorority. Ensure group leaders understand and accept their role as a leader and are proud that they were chosen to lead and be in this group. Leaders who are there begrudgingly aren't going to, they're probably just going to turn a blind eye. They don't want to be bothered with it. Leaders who are proud to be leaders of that group are going to want the group to represent them. They're going to want to create a group that is amazing. So if they feel ownership of the group, then they're likely to help prevent hazing and anything that would look show poorly against them. Support educational programs on the following topics, group dynamics, because any new group, workplace, sports team, sorority, they're going to be, it's going to go through the group dynamics phases. Help them learn how to effectively communicate with the group because you have to communicate differently with different people. Identify recruiting and host policies, intervention skills. If it is known or becomes known that there might be some hazing going on, what can leaders do to intervene? Help everybody develop listening skills and decision making skills, good health behaviors, conflict resolution skills, and make sure that everybody knows the codes of ethical conduct, acceptable standards of behavior, and rules and regulations of the institution and state laws. This can generally all be gone over during orientation week. So when do we do all this? Teach about hazing and remind group members that hazing policies are in effect everywhere, not just on campus, not just on the court, everywhere, 24 hours, 7 days a week. So if you go off to Tahiti with everybody for spring break, well that's great, but you can't haze them there either, rules still apply. You want to go over it at the beginning of every semester, just kind of do a check in, generally have them sign a pledge or something again. Before spring and summer breaks and when a new student joins, make sure that that new student knows that hazing is not acceptable. At the end of the year, it's helpful to do exit interviews, especially with those students or people who are leaving your group permanently, they're graduating, moving on, whatever. Do an exit interview to find out, you know, in retrospect, is there anything you would have changed? So those stages of group development, forming, storming, norming and performing, during forming, the group of people comes together to accomplish a shared purpose. Their initial success is going to depend on their familiarity with each other's work style, their experience on prior teams and the clarity of their assigned mission. So for sports teams, for example, it's often very clear what they want to do and they generally have experience on other sports teams before, you know, by the time you get to the place where there could be hazing happening. So that's all good, but everybody gets in and they've been coached by different coaches, they have different styles. So during this period, as a leader, our role is to help the team members get to know each other with team building activities and a listening ear. We need to help them learn how to communicate and start building those bonds. During the storming phase, disagreement about the mission, vision and ways to approach group goals are constant. People are arguing about who should be first string, who should be second string. Obviously, you know, often not with the coach, but among each other and there's snickering and, you know, irritability. This is not uncommon. As a leader, our role is to help the team members get to know each other, clarify the goals for the team so that the team succeeds. We want to look at how can, you know, who's going to be best in this slot so the whole team succeeds. During the norming period, the group has formed working relationships that are enabling the progress of the group's objectives. They've agreed to abide by certain group norms and are becoming functional at working together. So at this point, as a leader, we can back out a little bit and ask for periodic updates and regularly check the group's progress. It agreed upon intervals and critical steps on the path to a successful conclusion. So if it's a sorority, for example, and they have this big project they're working on, well, that's wonderful. You know, just check in once in a while to make sure that they're making adequate progress on that. We used to have an annual project that we would do. Performing. Relationships, team processes, and the team's effectiveness in working on its objectives are syncing to bring out a successfully functioning team. So here, ask for periodic updates, help solve problems and provide input as needed, and make sure that members are communicating with all of the other appropriate parties. So, for example, with us, one of our projects generally revolved around homecoming and doing the homecoming float. We needed to make sure that we were not only getting the homecoming float built, but we also had put in our application to be in the homecoming parade and, you know, communicating with any other organizations or people we needed to. Ending is the final stage of group development, and the team has completed its mission and it's time for team members to pursue other goals. This is generally graduation. So as a sponsor or leader, we want to make sure that the team schedules an ending ceremony. Debrief and discuss the successes and maybe how the team could have been more successful. And it marks a clear ending to the team or project. At the end of every year, most sports teams have a banquet and they go over and give their awards and yada, yada. We can do the same thing with sororities and fraternities and other groups. Group building. Make sure that members understand the expectations and goals of the group. Make sure they understand why they're participating in the group. So, you know, what is the person's goals? If they're trying to join this team, you know, what are their goals and what are the group's goals and do those goals fit together? Can members define their group's importance to the accomplishment of university or national council's goals? So do they understand how their group fits with the university or, you know, with the panel and organization at large? Can members define the importance of other groups to the accomplishment of university and or national council's goals? So, you know, in an athletic department, there's going to be volleyball teams and football teams and this and that. And each group is responsible for its own stuff. So what is their responsibility? And what are the responsibilities of the other teams and the other groups in terms of achieving university goals? How can the group meet individual as well as organizational needs? The individual needs often surround belonging. You know, they want to be part of a group. They want to be part of this. It can be financial. They may get involved with the group because they think it'll help them get a better paying job. Or for future recruitment, you know, they want to be part of a group and this particular group because they think they have a high likelihood of getting a better job in the future. Discussion questions for people to ask when you're doing this initial team building activity. What makes you feel accepted? Why did you choose to be part of this group? What do you think will be the most positive outcome of your membership? And what do you know about the goals and traditions of this particular organization or group? So have people answer this at the beginning so they can start talking about what their needs are and what their expectations are. So team building is the hazing alternative. It promotes respect and dignity, supports and empowers every member of the group, creates real teamwork, develops pride and integrity among all members. And is a shared positive experience. So you can think back to things that you've done in your life where there wasn't any hazing involved, but it was a shared positive experience. And you can think, you know, we really made a difference when we did that. You didn't have to be hazed. You were willing to do it and it was, you know, because you were invested in it. You were invested in the team. So some hazing alternatives. We want to look at anything that's going to help build mutual acceptance, pride in the group, as well as self pride. Dignity, respecting each other's dignity and making sure that group is behaving in a dignified manner and wants to behave in a dignified manner. Contributing, when they contribute to something. And sometimes people join groups because they want to contribute and be part of something bigger than themselves. So how can we help them do that? And how can we help them forge bonds with other people? So designing and completing a community service project is a great way. Rewarding teamwork, attending a team building ropes course to build unity among new and veteran members. Encourage members to wear team apparel. You know, so they all have, you know, they're kind of branded with whatever the team is. And, you know, a lot of places do that. They wear their letterman's jackets or they wear their sorority letters, whatever. Send photos of the current captain or president and new members to the local paper with a personal story about each person. That way the community gets to know one, each person. Take the group hiking, canoeing, rafting or on a scavenger hunt. These are just fun things you can do together to build positive memories. Compete with each other in team games. Encourage mentorship of, you know, it can be senior members to junior members or it can be, you know, two people who've been there the same amount of time with different skill levels. Create a unity board that lists the interests and skills of each person and draws connections between members. So you'll have a picture and then a description underneath the picture about that person and about everybody on the team. And then you can take strings and thumbtacks and connect people that have similar interests so they can see, you know, things between them. Encourage team building by using leadership reading and discussing a chapter each week. So this is one of the lists that I found. I really liked a lot of these books. Leaders Eat Last, The Introverted Leader, Lean In, Change the Culture, Change the Game, you know, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Obviously it's going to make that list. So encouraging teams to read these books and talk about how these skills in the book can be used to help them succeed as a team and achieve their goals. So the hazing test is their secrecy around the activity. Is their pressure to participate? Is a specific group or individual singled out? Do members justify it as being just a tradition? Does this activity promote and conform to the ideals and values of the team, athletic department, university or sister or brotherhood? Will this activity increase long-term feelings of friendship between new and initiated members? Take the perspective of your parents. Would they be proud? What about your coach, your athletic director, the National Council? Is this something, whatever you're getting ready to do, if they knew about it, would they be good with it? Would you be willing to defend the merit of this activity in court? And does this activity both meet the spirit and letter of the standards prohibiting hazing? So like I said, we can't specifically identify every single thing that could be considered hazing. So we need to look at the spirit of what was written. Does it avoid humiliating or embarrassing somebody? So hazing can be prevented. Many times, hazing is perpetrated by those who are poorly informed. So it's important to help teams, organizations know that there are many alternatives to hazing. We can still help you develop bonds and create an environment that people want to belong to and have an attachment to, without having to put them through the ringer. Group leaders, administrators, counselors, and group members all have a responsibility for hazing prevention. Education about life skills, communication skills, goal setting, interpersonal skills, and conflict resolution can all be helpful in developing an effective group and one that is led by mutual respect. So some resources and these are included in your course are available to help you develop hazing prevention programs in your particular area. Are there any questions? All right, if nobody has any questions, I will see you on Thursday. Have a great day. If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe either in your podcast player or on YouTube. You can attend and participate in our live webinars with Dr. Snipes by subscribing at allCEUs.com slash Counselor Toolbox. This episode has been brought to you in part by AllCEUs.com providing 24-7 multimedia continuing education and pre-certification training to counselors, therapists, and nurses since 2006. Use coupon code, Counselor Toolbox, to get a 20% discount off your order this month.