Hazing of Freshmen No Longer Tolerated

Apparently it has been a tradition in Coronado for upper-class students to hit incoming freshmen with wooden paddles as a way to initiate them into the high school. This tradition is simply persecution and torture of younger children and must stop immediately. The District takes very seriously the reports of paddling this summer. These are not events to be dismissed as juvenile antics. Paddling constitutes both a direct violation of the District’s discipline code and a serious crime punishable by law. It has been, and will be, handled as such. While individual discipline matters are confidential, please note that when the District learned of certain paddling events this summer, District administrators and the Coronado Police Department took direct intervention steps. Several families have been affected by this intervention. The investigation of these crimes will continue. If further information is brought to the attention of the District or police, it will be handled in a similarly serious manner. The District also has ramped up its efforts to communicate to students that this behavior will not be tolerated in Coronado. You will see signs of that in the messages that coaches, teachers, and other mentors at the high school deliver to students periodically through the year. We are also working on additional steps that we can take during the course of the next year to stop this violence and make sure that it does not happen again next summer. Jeffrey P. Felix, Ed. D. Superintendent