dbd33

Our office is close enough to "Ry High", a former poly, now university, to be on the parade route for the frosh. They're painted blue. Since there are hundreds of them it can't really be considered bullying.

Alberta_Rose

WELL:
http://www.cssd.ab.ca/schools/basil/...g_brochure.pdf
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald...1-bb3fb225679b
and http://www.corpun.com/cai00309.htm

The last story was at Bowness High School in 2003. So my son is just graduating from Bowness and I just asked him about this, as it was the first I'd heard of the like. He told me they had a talk at the start of year 10 where the principal explained that there had been that occurrence but with zero tolerance the practice has completely died out since then.

He (my son) also offered the following unsolicited comment when I told him a concerned parent had been asking: That high school in Canada is a completely awesome experience, and there is absolutely no need to worry about whether your kids will be happy here

He was 14 when we arrived, and went into the last year of Junior High at the time.

MB-Realtor

Absolutely, my kids adored High School here, compared to schools in the UK.

Oink

Froshing does sound awfully posh.

Lychee

Froshing/hazing in Canada is usually exclusive to first year university/college.

"Frosh week" typically refers to the first week of university classes - usually lots of free events and festivities are put on for the students by the university and affiliated clubs/associations - BBQ's, free concerts, games, etc. At least that was the way it was at UBC!

"Hazing" typically refers to an initiation ritual for first year students when they join university fraternities and clubs. Hazing is when the senior members of the clubs/fraternities welcome new members by making them perform some sort of amusing/humiliating/embarrassing act. Once they complete the initiation ritual, they become official members of ABC Fraternity, XYZ university club, etc. That is hazing.

But hazing isn't universal for all clubs, organizations and fraternities - I would say that very few actually have hazing rituals. Those that partake in them are usually done in good fun (ie: new members must wear women's underwear in public, etc). The stories in the media about violence/brutality are, like any other media story, the extreme cases - hardly typical. Even less typical in the high school setting.

There was a Hollywood movie - Dazed & Confused - which portrayed hazing as a universal brutal/violent/mean initiation for every first year high school student "freshmen" in the USA, but I've never seen or heard anything of the sort in Canada, ever.

marimac

Have never heard of froshing as a verb - but yes, Frosh week at University is similar to Fresher's week here. Mostly it's an orientation to the university, plus ice breaker games, concerts, etc. I think it used to get wildly out of hand, but in these 'health and safety' concious days, it's very regulated by the University (ours even banned all the songs with swearing )

And yes, generally the engineering students dye themselves purple - and ours would shave their hair - but it was done in a friendly way.

We had a sort of hazing when starting high school - but again, it was pretty mild stuff - a week of fetching the senior student's books and so on.

RN1

My son entered High School Sept '08 from the UK - no problems at all (well bar his laziness of course!)