As students walk out to lunch on Doherty Drive, they not only have to fear getting unpleasantly defecated on by a seagull, but also have to face the chance of getting hit with flying food.
Underclassmen who walk to lunch are often harassed by students driving by in cars, and are often yelled at while attempting to dodge flying food.
“Students who don’t drive walk down to get their food down there, and they get attacked,” said campus supervisor Levi Hooks.
Lunchtime hazing targets underclassmen, the main group that walks out to lunch.
“This form of hazing takes place when it’s usually upperclassmen against lowerclassmen,” Hooks said. “It’s verbal hazing and things being thrown out of the vehicles.”
Food is the most common object thrown out of cars, but there are students who are willing to throw just about anything at the students on Doherty.
“There was some freshman walking down the ‘Walk of Shame’ and I was driving by in my car, and I threw a full bottle of dip spit at these freshmen. They got really dirty,” said a sophomore boy who asked to remain anonymous.
When asked if he felt bad about the attack, he said, “No, I thought it was really funny.”
Although the hazers may find the attacks funny, the underclassmen who are being hazed think much to the contrary of this.
“Freshman year I thought it was amazingly cool to walk out to lunch on the ‘Walk or Shame,’ and I did not know that people threw food at freshmen who walk,” said sophomore Chloe Lewis. “I got a giant orange thrown at my stomach and it splattered all over me and my clothes. That was the last time I decided to walk and it hurt and it was awful.”
As this issue remains prevalent, school administrators have taken steps toward limiting hazing on the walk to lunch.
There are now members on the campus supervision team who watch the end of the Doherty Drive near Redwood at lunch. If the supervisors see any items being thrown, they will take down the hazer’s license plates and enforce the consequences.
Campus supervisor Ryan Shaw said that he has not yet seen a hazing attack take place, but continues to watch Doherty Drive to try to prevent any from occurring.
Although it may seem like having an authority figure on the roads would completely stop the hazing from happening, Hooks said that this is not entirely the case.
“Last year was a little better because there was some construction work down there and it was a little harder for them to [throw food],” Hooks said. “Now it’s like even a wider crosswalk down there, so they can actually come closer to the curb to actually do the harassing,” Hooks said.
