To the editor:

In regards to your recent article about hazing at Lawrence High School, you mentioned the band breakfast. This is a tradition that’s been going on in LHS band for many, many years. However, you made a mistake: The seniors drag the sophomores out of bed. It’s our sophomore initiation. In my mind, this does not qualify as hazing, because all the parents know about it before it occurs, and they are welcome to say that their child can’t participate.

Section leaders call around before anything is done to make absolutely sure that the seniors in the section can show up before dawn and kidnap their children. We would never do anything like that without permission. I think you shed a bad light on us without meaning to, and I just wanted to clarify what sophomore initiation is.

Mandy Johns,
LHS Senior