The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School committee addressed bullying and hazing at its meeting Monday night, and its plans for an amendment change to the student handbook.
The conversation stemmed from a recent hazing incident involving the school’s field hockey team on Sept. 7.
Committee chairman Kris O’Brien asked athletic director Mark McCarthy to address how coaches are trained to recognize and prevent hazing.
Coaches are trained through a four-hour class with the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS). Seven of the school’s coaches were certified through the class this fall to meet Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) standards.
Once hired, coaches have 60 days to complete the test portion of the single class. McCarthy said he additionally meets with all coaches every year to discuss coaching.
A coach who is a teacher at the school or a coach who has been coaching since before 1988 does not have to get NFHS certification.
Principal Sara Dingledy said school administration only receives “anecdotal” information on a student’s experiences while playing sports, and instead wanted a way to hear how students and parents are experiencing school sports.
Teacher Jeremy Light shared a program evaluation survey that will now be sent out to all students and parents after each sports season to hear praise, criticism, or concerns from students and parents.
Dingledy said school administration sent out a document of what is and isn’t hazing for coaches and school clubs. The document identified factors of hazing, and examples such as forced activities for new recruits, forced food or beverage consumption, forced physical labor, humiliation, and beatings.
Committee member Robert Lionette raised issue with the school’s “one-off” requirement, in which coaches are required to take only a single class. Scrolling through the MIAA website on his phone, Lionette asked why more of the trainings and resources listed on the MIAA website were not utilized.
Dingledy said she has looked into several of the programs and trainings on the website, specifically those for students that focus on bullying, groupthink, and bystanders.
The conversation got tense when Superintendent Matt D’Andrea asked McCarthy, in his nine-year career at the school, and the entire committee if they knew about any prior hazing incidents. Lionette said it was “unfair” to ask.
“[Light] just commented that the reason he is doing this survey is to not build anything on anecdotal information. You just polled us all for stories,” Lionette said to D’Andrea.
“Look, if there hasn’t been hazing in nine years — this is the first incident — I think we’re doing a pretty good job,” D’Andrea said.
Some committee members took issue with D’Andrea’s statements, saying it is “unfair” to declare there hasn’t been hazing, because it could have happened, but could have gone unreported.
Committee member Amy Houghton said she knew there to be other incidents of hazing at the school, and felt students needed to be educated on what constitutes hazing. “There was a feeling that students didn’t understand what hazing was,” she said. “Helping students understand what hazing is, and the definition of hazing, is critical. I don’t think many students understood that forced consumption of food is considered hazing.”
When first reporting on the hazing incident, The Times had been told that the incident involved eating food, but school administration declined to comment on the details.
“If adult leadership is there, adult leadership needs to stop it. That’s the case with anything. Adult leadership needs to stop bullying, adult leadership needs to stop harassment,” Dingledy said.
Dingledy shared a document titled “What Hazing Looks Like” that had been given to students and parents.
A draft of an amendment to the student handbook detailing the definition of hazing and bullying, the responsibility of coaches and players, and the punishments if hazing occurs was passed out to committee members for review. The committee will vote on adding the amendment to the student handbook at the next committee meeting.
In other business, D’Andrea informed the committee of the expected merger of between the YMCA and the Ice Arena. D’Andrea said he worked on an agreement to ensure the interests of MVRHS were protected through the merger.
The committee voted to have O’Brien sign the agreement.
“Congratulations to the [YMCA] and the arena. I know that was in the best interest of the arena, to go under the auspice of the [YMCA], and I think it’s fantastic those two organizations have worked together. So many of our kids benefit from the healthy activity that those two places provide. As do adults,” O’Brien said.
English teacher David Wilson and guidance and counseling director Mary MacDonald both announced their retirement in letters to D’Andrea and Dingledy. Wilson, who graduated from MVRHS, has taught at the school for 28 years. MacDonald has taught at the school for 26 years.
