A twisted drill sergeant mentality took root. That pissed me off, Schumacher recalls. Bugs will be found in the sugar, and cockroaches in the soup., For these early generations of cadets, at least there was pie. $325,000 109 Barney Way 3 Bed 2 Bath 1064 SqFt. In his affidavit, Niessner testified that when he reported his abuse to the TAC office, an officer asked, Will your parents sue? (They did not.) Home; About; Wiki; Tools; Contacts What we got was silence. They ruled by intimidation and fear.. English demanded a say in day-to-day decisions but neglected systemic issues, according to the former trustee, who adds that most board members were disengaged: Everyone told war stories. In 2018, one former TAC said he was tasked with a night shift overseeing four buildings, or 300 kids by himself. This evening, walking along a mossy brick pathway, he spotted something suspicious: Behind a storage shed, out of sight of campus surveillance cameras, a group of upperclassmen was tormenting a few shivering plebes. Even the number of pushups that a cadet can be forced to do in a day or at one time is regulated. The pie scars remain: West Point grads from that era, now 20 or more years from graduation, have been known to feign terror at being asked to cut a dessert. The still-pending complaint warns of a propensity among TACs for cadet allegations to be covered up and interfered with. Wood also alleges that his attempts to investigate claims were repeatedly met with implicit threats by top officials, including William Gallagher, a retired Army colonel who held various senior roles. Students of color and female cadets were admitted, if not with open arms. We were no longer in the military. According to Cadets on Campus, a history of military schools, Thayer defended his commandant, Captain John Bliss, after Bliss brutally assaulted a cadet. We keep hoping these guys would go away, Helgeson complained to the newspaper. An additional 15 await final determination by the armed forces medical examiner. [2] how bad is hazing at west point Menu dede birkelbach raad. Bossert and another former TAC told me Rivera sometimes slow-walked investigationsincluding one that involved a rape. Anyone can read what you share. Then, for 20 excruciating, uninterrupted minutes, plebes were at the mercy of their older classmates. On Jan. 2, cadet Gordon Fein shot and killed himself while at home in North Carolina on leave, and on Dec. 8 cadet Alfred D. Fox, a junior, took his life at a motel near campus by allowing a helium tank to empty in the room while he slept. The Forge wasnt adequately communicating with students about the Pell program, and multiple cadets said they never received money they were promised. The new class of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy this year has been spared a disciplinary ritual as old as West Point itself. Helgeson also tried some new revenue streams, such as licensing the Valley Forge name to a K12 school in Qatar and submitting a proposal to the local school board to establish a public charter school on the grounds. One can reasonably argue that the military must instill compliance and cohesion in its combat units. From the early West Point scandals to recent reports of hazing at the Virginia Military Institute, abuses at military schools have been codified in American culture through media reports, literature, and Hollywood tropes. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. More recently, though, pie at West Point lost its innocence. Former cadets Ryan Niessner, Jordan Schumacher, and Young Sheng are among the former cadets speaking out about their experiences at the Forge.Photographs by Devin Oktar Yalkin. No purchase necessary. Entrusting students in leadership roles was all well and good, but a dearth of healthy adult oversight and accountability had contributed to a culture replete with assaults, verbal abuse, hazing, and sexual violence that had resulted in police visits, lawsuits, and a cold war pitting recalcitrant trustees and administrators against reform-minded parents, alumni, and cadets. But at this 188-year-old school, hazing is a tradition that has survived reform before. Lord felt confident he could tackle the Forges cultural issues. We noticed you have an ad blocker on. But when an administrator raised concerns with the HR office about that counselorwho was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old at another schoolI was told that it was none of my business, to just stay out of it.. On a chilly evening in September 2020, Jordan Schumacher solemnly patrolled the grounds of Valley Forge Military Academy, near his wits end. monopolies of the progressive era; dr fauci moderna vaccine; sta 102 uc davis; paul roberts occupation; pay raises at cracker barrel; dromaeosaurus habitat; the best surgeon in the world 2020; One student stabbed a classmate with scissors; another bashed his peer with a baseball batneither met serious repercussions. MacArthur biographer William Manchester recounts in American Caesar that the future general in command of U.S. forces in the Far East was once laid unconscious and sent into convulsions after three separate groups of upperclassmen forced him to perform deep knee bends over broken glass. Cadets were meant to be supported by adult TAC (teach, advise, counsel) officers, many of whom are military veterans. (Long sued the school, claiming the allegations were cooked up by a trustee who disapproved of his management style. There were times, as a cadet, I thought some of those things silly and of maybe not of large consequence. There is no doubt in my mind that stress is a factor, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli said at a news conference yesterday announcing the 2008 figures as well as new prevention initiatives. You would read (the rules) and say, Well this sounds OK. But in terms of how it was practiced, there was much opportunity and great potential for abuse by the upper-class cadets, Hammond says. On June 11th, an angry and mournful letter signed by hundreds of graduates of West Pointspanning from the Class of 1948 to . The most comprehensive account of abuses at Valley Forge came in 2015, when Robert Wood, the schools Title IX officer, filed an explosive whistleblower complaint alleging that child abuse and sexual misconduct cases had been mishandled. The suicides are the first since at least 2005. Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights. But most famous of all is the novelist J.D. All Rights Reserved. Police reports obtained by Mother Jones from the last decade involve cadets as young as 13 experiencing psychiatric crises, including suicidal behavior. In 2016, an 18-year-old cadet took his own life in Lafayette Hall. Price on Request First Name* Last Name* Email* Phone Number* Deaths Come as Overall Army Rate Jumps, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, said By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners. Hazing has been punishable by courts martial since 1874, but a Department of Defense report in 1992 found that hazing-type behavior was still prominent at West Pointand cited pie-cutting rituals as an example. Yet in recent years, Forge administrators had laid off some of the best TACs and replaced them with less-enlightened ones. By the time Navy Rear Admiral Peter Long took over as president in 2000, the Forge was down to a few hundred students and on the verge of bankruptcy. Theyre weakening the brand.. To close budget gaps, they chopped haphazardly, deferring major maintenance projects, gutting academic programs, and laying off dedicated employees. In another troubling case that Wood discussed with a local newspaper in 2017, four male college cadets conspired with a fifth to covertly film his sexual encounter with a drunk female cadet. By many accounts, its trustees and administratorsmostly former military menhave downplayed the schools problems by concocting positive images and suppressing scandals. That particular brand of hazing is officially outlawed at West point. None of them tried it again, to his knowledge. Perceived stigma for those who seek help is a continuing problem throughout the Army and also exists at West Point, officials and students said. in their boot camp or whatever, they had him taking some weird pills or whatever, and he lost like 30 pounds (he wasnt fat, probably average healthy weight). Hazing was modified in the wake of scandal, but the almost sacred rite of passage could not be eradicated. (The board rejected the plan, citing trustees dearth of educational experience and a lack of competent curriculum guidelines, and accused the Forge of trying to subsidize its private school with taxpayer dollars.) Finally, in a decision the cadets would feel acutely, Helgeson promoted TAC J.J. Rivera, a fellow Marine, to the title of commandant. Lord and others alluded to a multimillion-dollar donation from the family of an alum, the son of Ettore Boiardi, a.k.a. It's us but for your ears. Send any friend a story. At least five cadets I interviewed identified Rivera, a former helicopter pilot who didnt respond to multiple requests for comment, as one of the most abusive TACs. Major Fetchet, a West Point man and soldier of the civil war, says that hazing first started at West Point as a social protection for cadets who had not the advantages of wealth or social standing and were apt to be snubbed by those who possessed these advantages. Another one recalls Rivera flirting with her repeatedly and saying she reminded him of his wife. I remember our daughter mentioning there being a brief by the supe last summer updating the new cadets on how many of their number had left. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. It didnt always go that well. Hed stumbled upon an unsanctioned version of the cap shield exam, an induction rite wherein new students are quizzed on the Forges nearly 100-year history. During a subsequent congressional inquiry, New York Rep. Edmund Driggsdescribed the academys hazing culture as detestable, disgraceful, dishonourable, [and] disreputable.. Lord resigned in March 2019, after less than a year on the job, citing the boards incompetence. Formal military education emerged in Europe during the 18th century and was embraced by the colonial brass during the Revolutionary War. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death, Skin lesion removed from President Bidens chest last month was cancerous, doctor says, CPAC shows the GOP has deep divisions heading into 2024, Abortion clinics crossing state borders not always welcome. Another controversial figure is J.J. Rivera, until recently the schools commandant, or head TAC, whose verbal attacks on cadets and flirtatious behavior with female cadets raised eyebrows. how bad is hazing at west point All they cared about was that there was no negative press, even if it meant that kids were being sodomized or kids were having inappropriate sexual relations, or getting drunk or getting high, or whatever. Hazing at West Point Tweet Save Alfred Eisenstaedt created Hazing at West Point in 1936. Being yelled at while cutting pie into an odd number of slices, they say, or the myriad other indignities of the fourth-class system, taught cadets how to complete a detail oriented, exacting task while stressed out and under pressure. Hazing of first-year cadets, or. Another slide depicted Rivera as particularly abusive, a contention bolstered by numerous staffers and cadets, including one who remembers Rivera routinely ordering Schumacher into his office just to scream at him. Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do. He never woke up, said a cadet familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. She shared her story with several friends at the time (I spoke with two who confirmed this), one of whom proceeded to beat the shit out of the guy. Plebes of old had to do such things as memorize how many ice cubes go in the drinks of upperclassmen. Or study New York Times articles, ready to repeat them verbatim at the whim of older cadets. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. As punishment, they were ordered to paint the commandants house. Hank Nuwer, author of four books on hazing, says that in America from 1970 to 2012 there was at least one hazing death a year, and often more than one, with a total of 104 deaths. It merely makes them obedient. This truth helps highlight the moral clarity of dissenters such as Salinger and Schumacher, whose insubordination was a clear-eyed response to abuse, a righteous rejection of bullying masquerading as command and control. Yung talagang pasaway na ayaw tumigil sa panggu-gulpi at pangtotorture dito sa estudyante, mga kapatid nila na gusto sumama sa mga organisasyon na ito. The mistreatment amplified my anger issues, Sheng said, and led him to abuse others in turn. The word snafu comes from a military acronym meaning situation normal: all fucked up. And thats a sentiment the Forge and like-minded institutions seem to be imprinting upon the next generation of military leaders. A lot of guys gave him a lot of crap. It was a brush off the shoulder kind of thing, he said. Every single class that has ever come here has been told during their freshman year that you got it easier, Hammond says. (Despite these physical demands, cadets throughout the 19th century reported that bread was the only other reliably edible food.). Therese Dougherty, who oversaw student activities and the schools summer camp for McGeorges successors, filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in 2013 contending that administrators treated her in a condescending and demeaning manner and showed favoritism toward male employees. Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox. In addition to their academic courses, cadets took (and still take) physically demanding classes such as boxing, gymnastics, and swimming, and are expected to complete long marches, obstacle courses, and regular fitness tests. ), "hazing" as the term is still used at USMA is not the hazing of old where plebes must do physically harmful things. The sad saga of shad, Revolutionary Americas favorite fish. For the unaffiliated, the cadet mess looks like a Hollywood set: one part Game of Thrones imposing, one part Harry Potter magical. But what upset many here were the unwritten but nonetheless tolerated practices of the upperclassmen under what was called the fourth-class system, according to Col. H. Steven Hammond, whose commandants office oversees military training for the cadets. Afterward, one emailed him a screed claiming he lacked the traits of a US Marine. Voila, perfectly cut pie. (By Muhannad Falaah Associated Press) We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget. By the accounts of those I spoke with, the Forge has indeed come to mirror many of the worst aspects of military culturethe lies and cover-ups, the unwillingness to deal appropriately with sexual assaults, and the lack of financial transparency.