Videomakers Try to Halt Hazing

Videomakers Try to Halt Hazing

Rachel WickKTTC-TVROCHESTER, MN--

Some think it's a harmless rite of passage but the practice of hazing can be both degrading and deadly. Just this month, an Austin teenager was arrested for hazing a hockey teammate. Now, a Rochester company is at the cutting edge in efforts to get kids to wise up to the dangers of hazing. Rochester Police Officer Gretchen O'Neill says, "It's an initiation practice that can cause emotional or physical pain, anything degrading or embarrassing."Hazing... some might call it tradition, the law says it's abuse.In 2002, several hazing victims came forward to local authorities asking them what they could do to help put an end to hazing.Rochester Police Officer Gretchen O'Neill says"The kids need to feel safe in the school and the hazing that I have dealt with has been violent related hazing and we need to come up with ways of reducing violence in the schools.And that's just what Rochester Police Officer Gretchen O'Neill did.She teamed up with a local design and development company to create an educational movie called "Hazing The Painful Truth".Ted St. Mane and Mike Pruett of MLT Group worked on the project.MLT Group CEO Mike Pruett says, "We took it upon ourselves to do the funding of it and producing it."They even cast local authorities and students as their actors.MLT Group Director of Operations Ted St. Mane says, "It was a very organic acting experience, we brought these kids in, we based the story on improvisational acting and the kid's really rose to the challenge."The movie places the students in a difficult situation, should they follow their friends or should they walk away?Rochester Police Officer Gretchen O'Neill says, "I think there's a high need especially at the high school level to belong."MLT Group Director of Operations Ted St. Mane says, "Hazing is controversial, and as I learned more about it I thought this is a no brain-er type of issue."O'Neill says all Minnesota schools discipline students involved in a hazing.Something she's hoping won't have to happen much longer thanks to the pro-active steps being made to end hazing."Hazing the Painful Truth" has been picked up by every high school in Minnesota.Rochester Officer Gretchen O'Neill says the video will be shown to all student athletes before each sporting season.

Updated: June 29, 2007, 7:09 am

Link to report : http://www.kttc.com/News/index.php?ID=16316