Curley: There’s no way violent hazing of Kirkland students went unnoticed

Kirkland’s Juanita High School has been put under a judicial microscope ever since news of a disturbing hazing incident broke. A judge is now saying that while the perpetrators are at fault, they too could be victims of the school’s culture.

“The judge is also suggesting that … there may have been this kind of jubie hazing culture in the school. And maybe we should take a look at how the entire school operates because there seems to be a tradition,” said Tom Tangney on KIRO Radio’s Tom and Curley Show. “In fact, a couple of the kids who were perpetrators might have had something similar happen to them earlier in their [time on the team].”

“Jubie” is a term used for a specific form of hazing at the school. It involved violating teammates with foreign objects such as a broom stick.

“There was an 18-year-old volunteer manager of the football team who was a special needs student,” Tom said. “They tackled him in the shower, pulled his pants down, pulled his underwear down, and jabbed at him with this broom stick.”

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The Seattle Times reports that five students were charged with felony assault. Three of those five pleaded guilty to lesser charges &#8212 including the student who wielded the broom stick &#8212 and two are fighting the charges.

“The kids were expelled and were not allowed back onto the team or into the school,” Tom said.

The school’s coaches, however, were cleared of having any involvement in the matter. They claim that they never knew such things were happening on the team.

But co-host John Curley isn’t buying that story.

“Do you really believe that the higher ups didn’t know that this type of stuff was going on? That kids were taking broom sticks and sodomizing kids with it? Do you really believe that they had no idea? That this was some secret? That all the kids kept this a secret? Come on,” Curley said.

“If it’s a culture that’s been going on a couple of years or at least a few months, someone would have said something,” he added.

Some of the offending students may have had similar assaults committed on them while on the team, according to The Seattle Times. One student came forward alleging that a similar incident was carried out on him.

“They had a summer program where you would go away as a team, for team building at a camp. And apparently they dragged a kid out of a bed to do this to him,” Curley noted.

Tom noted that hazing is not isolated to Kirkland. It’s a problem at various schools.

“This is not just in Juanita. There are incidents across the country, like Long Island New York in 2004, New Mexico in 2008, Vermont in 2011, South Carolina in 2013, New Jersey last year. It’s common enough,” he said.

“They did this at Archbishop Carroll,” Curley chimed in. “They would pin you down and cut your hair with this razor. God I hated it. I hated the fact that I would be victimized at any time.”