Englishmum

I was driving past our local high school yesterday and there were 8 TV camera crews on the pavement nearby.

A big news story has broken out about the 'Slut List' - where teenage 'mean' girls are hazing (intimidating/bullying) the girls who are not considered 'popular'. Apparently some girls are upset that they are NOT on the 'slut list'...

It's such a weird phenonemon to me with all of this so-called hazing at schools and universities in the US and I think it's appalling.

This is the report and video from 'Good Morning America' on ABC this morning:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/teen-girls...ory?id=8649050

I'm so glad that my son has already graduated from this school and AFAIK was never involved in any incidents like this, as a perpetrator or a victim (he was never one of the 'popular' group). I had no idea it's been going on for about 15 years. It all seems pathetic and childish to me. They should at the very least suspend or even expel the instigator/s to teach the rest of the pupils - now and in the future - to refrain from this 'hazing'....but I know the superintendent won't do any such thing.

caleyjag

University hazing is just a bit of fun. This sounds like a whole different ball game.

Englishtart

One of our local schools has been in the national news lately for a school bus beating, I think it is disgusting, I wonder how the parents of these kids feel when they see them in the video acting like animals!

Now the white supremists have moved in and are trying to make it out to be a hate crime!

http://ssomail.charter.net/do/redire...252Fvideo%252F

Bluegrass Lass

I hope all of them get expelled, and are prevented from graduating this year. There is no harmless fun in what they did. If it hurts their little egos, to damn bad - perhaps it will teach them a lesson about life. And I hope they hold the parents accountable for the kids actions. If they actually did their jobs as parents, this kinda crap wouldn't happen.

orangemirror

Very weird stuff. I never encountered any of that kind of stuff at schools in the UK.
I did encounter something like it at Uni when I signed up for the rugby team and went along to the first social event and discovered it meant having a bunch of public schoolboy tossers expect you to pour pints of urine over your head and stuff like that. Errr no thanks, I like playing rugby but I think I'll give that a miss you freaks.

neil

Must have been a slow news day. Seriously, national news? Surely the local paper is all this "story" is worthy of.

Bill_S

That was my first thought as well. Given that teenage girls are involved, there's a strong chance that this is something minor that has been blown out of proportion by attention-seeking kids and over-reacting adults.

bevinva

My DD's school just had a bomb plot which thankfully one of the boys spoke up about.

Sally Redux

Me neither. There appear to be very fixed groups like 'popular', 'nerd' that one has to belong to. The girl groups are brutal in terms of what is considered de rigeur. My daughter goes along with a lot of the fashion victim crap to stay in with the right people.

snowbunny

While this may not have "deserved" wide-spread news coverage, bullying in this form IS a huge problem. Girls can be so nasty to each other and it's destructive to the soul and distracts from education. As an adult I have the coping skills to deal with this kind of crap, but the victims of such bullying are usually chosen in part because they can't shut down the abuse. On occasion I hear it as a parent by-stander and I WILL intervene verbally.

FWIW I avoided this altogether in high school by having only guy friends.

Found this:

http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo...4342147&page=4

Too right I would intervene, though I'd do it calmly like the man on this page.

Ridski

It's a commuter town that I actually right on the edge of. Chances are one of the reporters has kids in that school.

Edited to add: The high school I went in London was known as Burghley Boghole, as it had a rep for 6th Formers grabbing 1st years and flushing their heads in the toilets. Luckily for me, that was pretty much phased out when I got there, but that doesn't mean we didn't just up and leave the toilets if any 6th Formers came in, just in case.

Sally Redux

My husband's school in Gateshead had a chaming old custom called 'Foggy's Friday' where the 1st years or foggies received the same treatment.

Englishmum

Which is why it would be better if all the public schools in the US implemented the wearing of school uniform so everyone is on an equal footing.

We moved to the US when my daughter was 16 and had just taken her IGCSE's. She knew a lot of American kids (her boyfriend was at Singapore American School) and had seen enough of the 'Valley Girls' and the 'popular groups' to put her off wanting to go to our local NJ high school....just as well as it's the one with the 'Slut List' which seems to have been ongoing for years - perhaps they would have found a newbie from overseas a prime candidate to pick on....

Bob

In the UK it's usually drinking games or knick the mascot from the rival uni....they take it to a whole new level over here and it's beyond having a laugh but a bit sad really and those turning a blind eye to it are probably worse, trying to relive their "glory" days I guess.

Bob

I battered seven shades of shit out of someone trying that stunt on me as a kid, worked a treat, but then I guess he didn't expect to be sandbanged by a rucksack weighing a ton in books, nor picking teeth out of the urinal afterwards

But then back in the day you wouldn't get sued/arrested for standing up for yourself either....or paying someone else to stand up for you