With every start to the new school year there comes a new batch of freshmen. The chatter about the new ninth graders can be heard throughout the halls. Most of the talk associated with the youngest members of the school is negative. The word annoying and freshman go hand in hand, but do they actually get treated differently by upperclassmen?

The term “hazing” dates back all the way to the 17th century. Hazing can be a friendly act, but it also can be a criminal act if taken too far. Examples of these kinds of gestures are seen all over television. Events such as this are present in initiation ceremonies in sororities and fraternities on college campuses.

“I don’t think freshman are treated badly at our school at all,” junior Chris Walton said. “I think they are treated the same as older students.”

Coming into high school most people are nervous for what’s to come. It makes it easier when there is nothing to worry about. Most people would agree that the students at SW do a good job of making the new ones as comfortable as possible. However cases of freshman hazing aren’t unheard of. In 2004 upperclassmen members of the football team at Sandwich High School in Sandwich, MA participated in what they called the “freshmen beat down”. They grabbed a ninth grader and hurt him to a point where his spleen had ruptured.

“I wasn’t nervous or intimidated at all about the upperclassmen,” freshman Keaton Stein said.
Students here don’t have to be worried at all and for the most part, freshmen hazing is something that you only see on TV and not in real life.