When Anonymous walked out of the Glens Falls Civic Center a winner of the New York state high school volleyball championship, she had big plans for her college volleyball career. Her four years on Gary Bynon’s team at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake would have set her up for major success, had she not been immersed in the epidemic that’s gaining popularity across the nation, hazing.
The freshman at SUNY Geneseo was one of the eight underclassmen who attended a team party at an off-campus apartment on September 2nd where they were forced to do a series of tasks in order to pass what the upperclassmen called “initiation”, including taking shots while blindfolded and handcuffed.
The night quickly turned ugly when one of the girls had to be taken to the hospital and treated for alcohol poisoning. It was there that the police questioned some of the players and were told the whole story- initiation included- by one of the freshmen, much to the rest of the team’s frustration.
When asked about the girl who was hospitalized, Anonymous said that in one team task where each group had to drink a large pitcher of alcohol ,“she carried her team,” and “wasn’t forced by the upperclassmen to drink that much.” She also said that the whole night had somewhat of a “joking” atmosphere, that the older girls only did the hazing because they had it done to them, and that her team loves each other very much.
Unfortunately the Geneseo volleyball team didn’t realize the consequences of what they believed to be a fun night and had their season temporarily suspended and officially cancelled on Friday. The eleven upperclassmen have been charged with hazing and providing minors with alcohol and will appear in court in October.
Several of the girls on the team have stated that the whole ordeal was blown out of proportion, but SUNY Geneseo isn’t listening, making it clear that no form of hazing, no matter how harmless, will be tolerated.
All pictures from google images
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