<p>Millburn is a top rated HS in NJ. In todays NY Times, there was more on the continued hazing by senior girls. This year there weren’t even suspensions of the hazers, but in the past when kids were suspended, one blogger maintains that the suspensions were not even reported to colleges. I ask all Adcom people to be aware that there is a culture of hazing there, and that the school will take no efforts to stop hazing or to encourage honesty. The girls who haze are going to go to college and IMHO their agressive abusive behaivor will escalate (as no one has enforced consequences for this).</p>
<p>High schools in well to do towns are not interested in telling the truth for fear of lawsuit exposure. My hometown school has a senior who plagiarized a major research paper in an AP course. The punishment - a letter of apology with a promise that the incident will be expunged from the record. When a school is willing to sweep academic dishonesty under the rug, it shouldn’t surprise you that other incidents of student misbehavior are not reported. In addition to the potential liability they fear, schools also want to see their acceptance numbers high no matter how they get there. If schools like the one you mention are honest, they will have fewer top tier acceptances and the parents will get torches and pitchforks.</p>
<p>I agree, Speihei, that was not right. But a propensity toward bullying is, IMHO, much more serious. Colleges have a duty to show care in seeing that students are safe, especially residential colleges. If a student has been a bully, the college must see that the student has grown and dealt with it. How can a college be comfortable with any female Millburn High School student after reading the NY Times?</p>
<p>We live by Milburn, but my kids do not go to the school. I didn’t read the article, but there are similar girls in every high school, there is no reason to single them out. Most of those girls either change their behavior or are shun by their peers when they get older. I don’t think this should be a campaign to put the whole school in unfavorable light to jeopardize their college process.</p>
<p>Kayf, that hardly seems right to tar all Milburn females with the actions of a few.</p>
<p>I don’t think behavior will escalate once they go to college. College is a completely different environment from high school. Despite the drinking, the wild nonsense that goes on, people really do get mature here. </p>
<p>“no one has enforced consequences for this”? They won’t need a GC to keep them in line in college. They’ll have police with assault charges if things get too out of hand. </p>
<p>I would also not jump to conclusions on this matter. “One blogger maintains?”- hardly seems like good evidence. Also, the use of absolute terms such as “the school will no efforts” and wild speculations actually harms your argument.</p>
<p>lol not surprised</p>
<p>At a minimum there should be a review of prior transcripts and GC reports to colleges and common appl. Any transcript not reflecting a suspension should result in disciplanary action to the GC. </p>
<p>I am saying that until Milburn insitutes a review of the entire situation, they are not accepting responsiblity. Unless the good people demand action, everyone will be tainted. </p>
<p>I am writing the head of my alum adcom to say that this situation is not acceptable</p>
<p>Why do kids who cant afford to live in Short HIlls have to worry about GC reports and suspensions?</p>
<p>kayf – My daughter has several friends at college who graduated from Milburn HS. They are uniformly sweet, smart, tolerant and caring young women. They have indicated that the hazing is limited to the most part to a select group of “sports girls” and have said that this issue is a non-issue to the vast majority of students at the school. I think it is wrong to assume that 100% of the kids living in Short Hills are from an economically elite background. While my daughter’s best friend is from a wealthy family, another of her Milburn HS friends is from a middle class background that lives in a small house purchased decades ago before real estate prices escalated out-of-sight.</p>
<p>Hazing goes on in many high schools, urban, suburban and rural. It is also often associated with sports teams. I have heard stories from my daughter of similar hazing at her rural Upstate NY high school among members of the girls soccer and softball teams. She plays tennis and it is a non-issue with members of that team.</p>
<p>I would agree that the administration at Milburn appears to be enabling a continuation of a “tradition” that should have been addressed and eradicated years ago. But I find it reprehensible to suggest that all graduates of Milburn be tarred with suspicion and subject to a review of their applications to college. On the other hand, the article should prompt school administrators and school board members (and I am one) to review procedures and policies relating to hazing, and to follow up on any tangible leads that suggest that similar behavior is tolerated at their schools. I can tell you that I will be doing so.</p>
<p>The only two girls I know personnally from Milburn are lovely young women. But that the school leaves off suspensions on college applications is disconcerting. See todays NYTimes where the principal admits it. </p>
<p>As we all know here, the Common Application asks, in unequivocable terms, “Has the student been suspended”</p>
<p>What else do they fudge? Do they compute class rank five different ways, and put the highest rank on the records and have half the class in the top 20%?</p>
<p>It is time for the colleges to step up and demand honesty.</p>
<p>Leaving suspensions off records is probably justified by the inherent dishonesty of “expunging” records. If the incident is expunged, it “never happened”.</p>
<p>In the criminal conviction world, there are significant requirements to obtain an expungement of a conviction. But in our schools, these expungements are granted at the whim of the administration with no formal enumeration of requirements and often the insufficient passage of time.</p>
<p>The principal’s words reported in the Times do nothing to dissuade me of the notion that this particular school plays fast and loose with the rules.</p>