UMDNJ fires 3 Paramedics over KKK Hazing Incident

[WAS967 97]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/a...entified_b.html

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/s..._hazing_in.html

Kinda makes me wonder what kind of hazing incidents previous students have had to go through. Shame, Newark is a good busy system to learn in, I don't think Northeastern students will be returning anytime soon.

[Guest MVFD334]

Do people think before they do things?? I mean this is just asking for it.

[x635 4,066]

As a former Northeastern University Paramedic School student, I am just shocked at this. Newark usually goes to the top three students in the class (while the rest go to FDNY), for two weeks of ride along time at the end of the porogram.

I rode along in Newark as part of the Northeastern University program, and it was an excellent system to learn in- I'm really shocked that this even happend, plus embarassing the department further by putting it on YouTube. Sure, antics go on in EMS systems, but Newark is VERY busy, and I don't even know how they had time for this. It's sad but it sounds like the students were victimized, which I can see happeneiing. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Shame on all involved, especially (in my case) the students for their hateful action imitating a horribly orginization, and for damaging the reputation of the program.

[AFS1970 504]

Hazing takes many forms but one thing to remember is that while this humor may have been in bad taste it did not involve any "people of color" so in and of itself could not be racist. There may very well have been coersion but there was no discrimination. Apparently now the PC crowd wants to regulate what people do in private because bad thoughts might lead to hurting people. George Orwell would be proud.

This is only an issue because someone took pictures and forwarded them to the press as well as management. No matter which side you are on, this was done to make a private situation public for maximum dramatic effect. If someone was being hazed in a dangerous manner, by all means report it to the boss, or better yet step in and stop it before someone gets hurt. But sending cell phone pics to the media, that is just plain wrong.

Another thing to remember about most forms of initiation, in many clubs and civic organizations is that they are designed for maximum fear with an ending that is much more of a let down. So I doubt that the students would have really been taken and dropped off like that in a black neighborhood, but I bet they thought they were going to be. Right or wrong that is how these things generally work. I can't imagine that a group of Paramedics would be any less safe than the average college fraternity.

I will also end this with the usual warning that we are not the judge or jury in this case. These Paramedics are innocent until proven guilty, even though that is no longer fashionable in this country. What we have been shown was graining pics from a cell phone, designed to show the media the worst possible image. The media then edits such things to give the public a small glimpse of what occured, to boots sales or ratings. It is highly likely that the only people who will ever know what happened were the ones in that room.

[Medibart 55]

Whether we like it or not, as emergency service professionals we are held to a higher moral standard, and we should be. We are given an unbelievable amount of trust by people. People trust us, as complete strangers, to come into their homes and see them at their worst. They have a right to expect that the people they are giving this trust to are of a very high moral fiber. That is why people get up in arms when our brethren do stupid stuff like this. It's not that people, or the media, take particular joy in it, it's that they are doing their jobs and holding us to that higher standard. If only the media would hold our government to those same standards.

I disagree with Seth's decision to not allow these items to be posted. People like these paramedics need to be made examples of and shown to the emergency services community so that hopefully someone has the sense that even if they don't have their own morality to prevent them from committing such acts, maybe at least they'll be afraid of appearing in the local paper, or on EMTBravo if they get caught.

Specifically about this incident, you don't have to be a "person of color" to be offended by being dressed as a KKK member. Furthermore, these are supposed to be EMS professionals in a work setting, this is not a college fraternity. This shows a complete lack of good judgement and a complete lack of any racial sensitivity by these paramedics and personally I hope they never get hired again.

The other day I saw a news item saying that a group of people wanted an apology because the term "black hole" is racist. Personally, I think that is PC out of control. I don't think expecting paramedics to show better judgement than forcing their paramedic students to dress up as KKK is even remotely close to being a case of PC out of control.