The stereotype about hazing is that it takes place on college campuses in fraternities and sororities. But some students at Westhill High School in Syracuse, New York, were a bit ahead of the curve. Despite their youth â or perhaps because of it â several members of the varsity lacrosse team decided to haze the younger players on the team.
They didnât do something simple like hide their clothes, make them run extra laps, or even toilet paper their parents’ houses. Instead, they pulled out all of the stops and planned an elaborate kidnapping.
Underclassmen believed they were just hanging out.
On April 24, 2025, 11 students, many of them members of the team, allegedly lured underclassmen with the promise of hanging out and getting something to eat, ABC News reported. But after eating, the driver claimed he was lost and stopped in a remote area. Eventually, âaccomplices jumped out of the woods pretending to be kidnappers,â Onondaga County District Attorney Bill Fitzpatrick explained.Â
The upperclassmen pretended to kidnap the boy.
The pretend kidnappers were dressed in black and armed with at least one gun and one knife. They placed a pillowcase over the head of one of the victimes, tied him up, and placed him in the trunk of the car. There were four other potential victims, but they were able to escape before the âkidnappersâ could put them in the trunk as well, ABC News reported.
“I’ve seen the video tape of what happened to this young man, it is not a rite of passage, it is not a trivial matter,” Fitzpatrick said. “I find it incomprehensible that in this day and age that somebody thought they could have gotten away with something like this.”
All of the students turned themselves in.
In response, Fitzpatrick gave the 11 suspects 48 hours to turn themselves in to the sheriffâs department. He said on April 29 that if the suspects surrendered before the deadline, their cases would be handled through the family court system and they would not have a criminal record. If the students refused to cooperate, they would be arrested, prosecuted as adults, and charged with kidnapping in the second degree.
“I cannot really adequately express to this community the level of stupidity and lack of judgement involved in this case,â he said of the incident during a press conference. All 11 students turned themselves in, WSYR reported.
Fitzpatrick said they traumatized their teammate for the rest of his life.
The district attorney would have been well within his rights to charge these teenagers with a crime, claiming their scheme went âbeyond hazing.â It was criminal activity. “If you want to welcome someone onto your team and toughen them up, maybe an extra hour of practice might be appropriate as opposed to taking someone at gunpoint, stuffing them in the back of a car and traumatizing them for the rest of their life,” he said.
The school also enacted consequences.
But thatâs just the legal side. The students and several others who werenât even there for the âkidnapping,â will suffer great consequences. Steven Dunham, Westhill Schools superintendent, sent an email home to parents stating that the remainder of the lacrosse season was canceled.
“Some may argue that all student-athletes shouldn’t be punished for the actions of a few. While I understand the perspective, we must address the culture of the program, and the most appropriate way to do that is with a reset,” Dunham shared in the email.
