CULTURE OR POLICY: Policing the Back of the Bus in Wilson

Possibly Christian Peck, the new Public Information Officer in Niagara County is right, maybe prophetic. Quoth Peck: “I believe that Niagara County is going to be the next big thing in New York State.” Wow, was he right. We made ESPN national sports news. But not because we have some winning athletes at the Olympics or such. It seems we may have a sub-culture in Wilson's sports program that seems to have become culture or tradition. We may not be alone in that. Sports culture is very influential in America. But when sub-culture rises to the level of culture we may have a more serious problem than we realize. So while I wait to see whether Mr. Peck “informs” us as to the real meaning of the events in Wilson I have a few thoughts.

The legal truth of course will play out in court. The cultural question is the deeper issue and more difficult to answer. But it seems the school district of Wilson has already solved the problem with a new policy. Sadly, such administrative cover-ups may be at the heart of the problem. When culture and community may be in jeopardy, can we deal with the issue by passing a more directive policy such that “it doesn’t happen again?” Can we solve the problem by remanding it to the courts? Granted there are, at least, three issues here, one legal, one cultural/educational and one a policy issue. But each must be solved in its own domain and on its own terms.

So far the Wilson school district and probably most of the Wilson community are in denial. In the first place “hazing” as such is a degeneration of culture. It is a sign of decadence. To haze means to subject to harassment or ridicule. It means to submit to abusive or humiliating tricks, or, to persecute with meaningless, denigrating tasks or to embarrass by forcing to undergo demeaning actions. It is insulting to suggest that this is some “rite of passage” when nothing about being butt-fucked with a cell phone is uplifting, transformational or inclusional. It is perverse, violent and sub-human.

If this abuse had anything to do with a rite of passage, then adults would be actively and consciously involved. If it were a rite of passage, then all the youth would undergo the ritual. The infantile pseudo-adults who rationalize this perversion by saying that “boys will be boys,” or that it was simply a matter of “goosing” are the source of the problem. The parents and coaches who are undoubtedly part of that “herd mentality” are the source of the problem. They have no interest in ‘rites of passage’ or putting in the hard work that sees to it that all the boys make the journey from boyhood and adolescence to manhood. Apparently the coaches, during this reprensible incident, were too busy at the front of the bus somnambulistically doing nothing, except earning a paycheck they don’t deserve and should no longer receive. So this is absolutely nothing like a rite of passage. No adults were consciously involved and only the weaker boys were the victims of this “rite of passage.”

The fact that this act of pederasty occurred on more than one occasion means that this was a premeditated act in which some perverse predilection was at play. But this was not play in any socially acceptable sense. The boys who were victimized here have suffered pain and humiliation which will take much time and further suffering to overcome. The perpetrators of these actions were predators and the younger victims the prey. It’s as simple as that.

According to Hank Nuwer, author and critic of the epidemic of hazing practices in our schools, says that such “rites” are increasing by leaps and bounds just based on recent reporting of such incidents. As with rape against women, how many such incidents are not reported, we don’t know. We can be sure there are probably many more.

Part of the problem, especially as witnessed in the Wilson incident, is the refusal on the part of the schools to deal with issues of sexuality, homosexuality, virility and gender identity. As we experienced recently in Niagara County, the Newfane schools were dealing with parents protesting a novel called “Montana 1948,” a story which contained a characters description of rape. Quite a number of parents were up in arms about this “passage in the book” even though most had never read the whole book, were willing to criticize it wholly out of context and righteously demand that the book be substituted for or eliminated from the curriculum.

So it seems that for some in Niagara County it is ok to perform acts of rape, as long as we call it hazing, but not ok to try to understand the phenomenon of rape through literature and its concomitant educational experience. It’s ok for “boys to be boys” but not for any given boy to actually openly be homosexual. As Michael Mangus discovered in the North Tonawanda school district when his life was repeatedly threatened because he was openly homosexual, it is not ok to be homosexual in Niagara County. The North Tonawnanda school has been no more able to deal educationally and culturally with Michael Mangus’s concerns, safety and education, especially with respect to his homosexuality, than it seems the Wilson community will be willing to deal with the perversion of youth culture in their schools.

While these incidents in Wilson and North Tonawanda were “teachable moments” and opportunities for the communities to grow and mature, this has not happened at least in the case of North Tonawanda. By all appearances the quickly released “policy” to deal with hazing by sports teams on buses in Wilson is obviously an act of denial and an attempt at re-normalization. They probably will refuse to look at the history of this phenomenon and understand how such sub-human things can happen in the first place. As Hank Nuwer indicated when one takes on the “sports machine” and the mindless and immature parents who vicariously live through their ‘youthful heroes’ who apparently can do no wrong, it is an uphill battle.

The neanderthals, mistakenly called parents,adults and coaches, who insist that an act of “rape” was “all in fun” are hopelessly emotionally and ethically retarded. Ask the victims of this rape if it was fun for them. Ask the boys who sat on the bus in fear that they would be dragged to the back of the bus if it was fun for them. Ask the victims if not being able to share their fears and concerns with egregiously irresponsible coaches who didn’t have a clue what was happening was fun.

Actually, I would prefer to believe that the so-called “coaches” didn’t know it was going on because if they did know, I shudder to think how teachers who are also parents would understand, explain and justify psychological torment of younger and weaker boys such that a few of "the guys" can “have some fun.”

Heads should role in Wilson. But more importantly there needs to be a long and serious period of self-examination such that the question of sex, violence and the erotic core of human relationship can be dealt with openly, honestly and critically, no matter how painful, embarrassing or conflictual.

Legal decisions and policy revisions will in no way deal with the heart of this event. It is time for Wilson and the Niagara County educational system to grow up. This event was no exception that can be excused, ignored or rationalized. This is a symptom of a deep social perversion and hypocrisy. It is time to face the facts of the matter, especially the fact that the school system seems unwilling and possibly incapable of appreciating and dealing with the magnitude of such an event.

One last observation: After having read the Gazette article by April Amadon yesterday, I was left puzzled and even more deeply concerned. When, according to the article's account of the new Wilson "bus policy," the coaches were required to use “extreme discretion” when using cell phones on the bus, I truly hope this was not an attempt at humor. But even if it was not, what, pray tell, could it have meant? Possibly the article was not reported well. But it doesn’t seem that the coaches' use of cell phones is what was at issue. The Wilson administration had better wake up and smell the severity of the situation. It seems the nation is watching.