Sexual Assault Is The New Hazing?

A recent post on the Title IX blog talked about a high school football team in Albuquerque, New Mexico and recent filing of a lawsuit that is being presented as 'hazing'. There are three alleged senior football players who committed the crime along with three victims. Five coaches are also being held accountable in the matter. However, the interesting thing here is that the victims all claimed to be physically and sexually harrassed in the incident and the courts are approaching the matter as hazing. When I was growing up and even experienced playing sports and being the 'freshman' of the team, hazing may involve a little physical harrassment but more importantly nothing to the extent at which a lawsuit should be involved. It mostly, more or less, was being called names or being deemed to running to get water or getting shouldered in the hallways. This blog clearly states that these girls were not victim to a normal 'hazing' act. What is more interesting is that two of the three seniors accused of the hazing are sons of the coaches also being accused in the matter. I think that this is another clear case of Title IX being under represented in sports. Just because these boys are involved in sports and may or may not be a big part of this teams success doesnt omit them from being charged with what they deserve. These boys deserved to be charged with sexual assault and or battery. Jocks like this always seem to be getting away with this in schools. Always calling out women and hitting on them in public and thinking that just because they are the big shots that any woman would want to get with them. Another thing that gets on my nerves is the fact that two of these young men are sons of coaches on the team. You would think that once these boy's fathers heard about this, which actually went unspoken since last fall, that they would be all over them. Sitting them or making them apolagize as soon as possible to maybe avoid being sued, but no now they get almost a free pass and are only going up against a way lesser charge of hazing instead of sexual assault. This blog reminded me of class and how we are in the process of interview people about Title IX. For me it was shocking that even my own sister didnt really know what Title IX was and had no idea what it entailed. Title IX is a big deal shouldnt be over looked just because of the male dominance in sports. It has taken Title IX so many years after it was put into play to even get recognition and its a sad thing that even today, 2011, that its still hasnt made a bigger impact especially in cases like these where girls aren't getting the justification that they deserve. These girls deserve to see these boys get charged with assault because of what they went through. Jocks these days dont need anymore of an ego boost then they already have.