Middletown’s football program has been one of the most successful in the state over the last few years. The Dauphin County borough takes a lot of pride in their Friday night football games. But Middletown has been shaken and many Central Pennsylvanians appalled by an alleged hazing on the football team.

Middletown School District Superintendent Chelton Hunter said in a written statement: “Cell phone video, taken by players, shows a group of students restraining two of their teammates and using a muscle therapy gun and another piece of athletic equipment to poke the buttock areas of the students who were on the ground,”  “The video shows players fully clothed. It did not appear that any student’s body was physically penetrated..”

Hazing to initiate new or younger people into fraternal organizations, clubs or onto sports teams is sometimes thought to be a relic of the past that is most often outlawed. But it isn’t.

Our guests today are national experts on hazing. Dr. Susan Lipkins, Psychologist and author of Preventing Hazing: How Parents, Teachers and Coaches Can Stop the Violence, Harassment and Humiliation, and Douglas Fierberg, an attorney and expert on legal issues involving school law, hazing, and sexual assault.

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