Issue date: 12/2/04 Section: Opinion

The coverage by The Battalion of the alleged hazing incident involving Corps Commander John Huffman has been unfair. It is a sad comment on the state of our University when the hearsay and conjecture of an anonymous parent is considered worthy of being printed as fact. If waiting for the facts requires The Batt to sit on a story for a week or two, so what?! The news will still be reported.

Now, the dubious University definition of hazing aside (aren't we all consenting adults?), what happens on the Quad is often strange and difficult to understand from an outsider's point of view, and headlines about an injured junior cadet miss the point that had UPD not shown up, the young man probably would have been released without harm. We all have done things that we don't want the UPD to see or know about. That doesn't make them wrong.

Moreover, this expert parent quoted in The Battalion clearly knows nothing of the junior-senior relationship, which is often closer to a friendship than a upperclassmen-lowerclassmen relationship. I know of no cadet who would fear organizational retribution for coming forward with a legitimate complaint.

If they have not come forward, it is because they do not think such action is warranted, not out of fear of retribution.

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