Posted on 05/16/2003 6:59:20 AM PDT by The Rant
By now everyone has seen the videotape of the melee that was titled a powder-puff football game in Northbrook, Illinois. In times passed senior and junior girls would gather to compete in a game of football, usually around homecoming, in an attempt to highlight a time during the year when tradition and inclusion became a right of passage. In times passed participating in such an event was an almost certain guarantee of fond memories to come. Today, this right of passage has taken on a much different tone and disturbingly the memories being made are those most often found in the files of police departments, social workers and the producers of The Jerry Springer Show.
The viciousness to which the junior girls of Glenbrook North High School were subjected was nothing less than brutal. The videotapes of the event show senior girls trying to pry the hands of their quarry away from their faces so they could be punched and kicked, senior girls pulling the victim’s hair in an effort to drag them from a position of defense so that they could be beaten further and even depicts some male attendees cheering this activity on and in some cases joining in pummeling of these young girls. Such actions are more likely to be attributed to the gang controlled mean streets of the inner city rather than an affluent neighborhood where privilege and opportunity abound.
One has to ask what went through the minds of those who were beating and kicking the younger girls. Are their lives so devoid of a definition for what is right and wrong that they couldn’t find it in their consciences to understand the brutality of their actions? Or is it that they are so filled with anger for all of their dysfunction that it all came to a boil on a forest preserve field late in a year that would be the last under the protection and privilege provided by their parents? Or perhaps it is just an imprudent self-absorption, a misguided sense of elitism provided by an unexamined sense of being that allowed them all to believe that they were better than those who they were brutalizing? No matter what the root cause of this behavior, behavior that cannot ever be accepted by society, the ultimate responsibility rests with the parents of each of these broken children. They have failed their children by allowing them to become the people who would do such a thing. By not being involved in their children’s lives enough to have been able to see the lack of morality, the unbridled anger or the absolute arrogance that raged inside their own children they became responsible for their children’s actions, if not legally then morally.
What is truly disturbing here are the actions taken after the brutality ended. If the beatings and humiliation weren’t bad enough, if the failure of the parents in their parenting isn’t failure enough, some of those who are responsible for the brutality are now objecting to the punishment that is being doled out by the school administration in the belief that what they did shouldn’t warrant a swift and serious response. The arrogance and the denial are maddening.
The school administration at Glenbrook North High School has imposed its penalties on those who were so vicious. The administration has suspended those involved for ten days (the maximum allowed) and is considering banning them from the prom and graduation, a consequence of their expulsions from school, which is being recommended by school officials. In light of the fact that five junior girls were sent to hospitals in the area with injuries that ranged from lacerations requiring stitches to broken bones one could see their way clear to view the punishment imposed as warranted if not lenient. Usually, when one human being punches, kicks, lacerates the skin or breaks the bones of another human being in a deliberate manner assault charges are filed. And when the perpetrators are stupid enough to have videotaped the incident the courts are pretty swift to place the guilt where it belongs. In this case, especially because of the videotapes, there is no question as to who is guilty or to the extent of their brutality. The only question is why formal charges have not been filed but that is a completely different matter.
Now comes the revelation that the parents of one of the girls who felt compelled to beat, kick and injure her schoolmates, 18-year old Marnie Holz, retained an attorney who has filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to keep the school from suspending her. “You are entitled to an education so when someone takes that right away from you without giving you due process, they have violated (your) due process rights,” said Naomi Valas, the Holz’s attorney.
What about the girls who received lacerations, broken bones and bruises from this little beast? Where is their due process? I can tell you where it is; it is in the suspension and possible expulsion, which I truly hope comes to pass along with criminal charges.
The gall of the Holz family to try and defer the punishment so that their “little darling” can still be included in the ceremonies usually reserved for those who have completed their years in secondary school with honor is of an appalling extreme. It can be argued that through this simple action by the parents, the action of retaining a lawyer to “get Marnie out of this”, they are once again failing their child. It can be argued that the action of trying to say “it’s-not-my-child’s-fault” is enabling their daughter in her dysfunction of believing that she is better than the rest. The simple action of not taking responsibility for the actions of their poor parenting and the actions of their daughter stands testament to a false belief that bad actions should be rewarded with oversight and denial. It is a cancer that our society is rife with and one that needs to be eliminated before our society decays any further.
What happened at the forest preserve field in Cook County, Illinois was an amazing affront to acceptable public behavior by any standard. Illegal acts were committed, laws were broken and certain penalties have been imposed on those who perpetrated these crimes. The possibility of future legal action against those who acted so brutally remains, but for now the penalties are just. However, this should not be the end of it all. We as a society have to examine why such things can happen within our communities, affluent or not. The contempt that some feel for others, no matter what the reason, and to the extent that it fosters violence as a response is unacceptable and needs to be addressed. We dare not drop the ball on this one.
As for the Holz’s, it is amazing to believe that some people can be so arrogant in their elitism. One would have thought that the actions of their daughter would have brought a bit of shame onto the family, instead they stand defiant in the courts of law making sure their little angel doesn’t miss out on any of the fun. Mr. & Mrs. Holz, you have a very warped definition of what is right and wrong. I pity your daughter.
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Frank Salvato is a political media consultant, a freelance writer from the Midwest and the Managing Editor for www.TheRant.us. He is a contributing writer to The Washington Dispatch.
Answer: thoughts of a hazing tradition and a lot of parent-supplied beer in kegs.
It's a good thing that it was a bunch of rich kids involved because they're going to be suing the school and each other like it's going out of style.
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