Learning survival of the fittest

At barely an inch deep, the knife wound to senior Brian Abel's leg didn't faze him. Instead of going for help, Abel retaliated against the older cadets at Massanutten Military Academy, a co-ed school in Woodstock, Virginia, where hazing rituals like stabbings are routine.

Like many other cadets, Abel had fallen victim to the established ruthless environment among the students at college-preparatory military boarding schools. These schools replicate the military structure to provide a disciplined education for teens, says Lieutenant Jim DeLaney, the director of communications at Massanutten. Every year, roughly 5,600 teens are enrolled in the 18 accredited military schools nationwide, according to Boarding School Review, the official boarding school web site. Some students enroll for the Reserved Officer's Training Corps (ROTC) programs, but many others are sent to military schools to correct behavioral problems. Under the supervision of a strict administration, students face a dual package of harsh punishments for bad behavior and brutality at the hands of their peers.

Teenage fun

Months before 2005 Blair graduate Ross Lightfoot would witness student violence firsthand, his wild pranks and disrespect for authority constantly landed him in trouble at Takoma Park Middle School, where he "was literally in the office every day," he says. Years after his return from military school, blotches of yellow still stain the walls of Takoma's main stairwell, where Lightfoot had thrown paint in eighth grade.

His misbehavior resulted in 13 suspensions, two arrests and finally, an expulsion from Takoma in eighth grade. As a last resort to correct his behavior, Lightfoot's parents enrolled him in Massanutten.

Soon, Abel would follow Lightfoot to Massanutten because of his experimentation with drugs, which led to several arrests. When Abel began stealing money from his stepfather to feed his habit, his mother could endure it no longer and sent him to Massanutten, where he lived during his sophomore year.

Whipped into shape

Lightfoot spent the second half of his eighth-grade year enduring Massanutten's regimented schedule and strict rules. Upon rising at 6 a.m. to the military wake-up call "Reveille," Lightfoot had five minutes to dress and to report to his cadet company commander for attendance and morning drills. Slow moving cadets would receive a customary visit from school officials, who would incessantly pound at the dormitory doors to hurry the cadets, because at military school, everything was expected to run exactly on time –– down to the minute.

After the roll call each day, the cadets marched around the school for two hours while loudly chanting "left, right, left." Meanwhile, the officials would shout in the cadets' ears to test the cadets' self-control. "There was no such thing as talking to you nicely," Lightfoot says.

DeLaney says that this routine is intended to instill values like character, leadership and time management skills in each cadet. On weekdays, after attending class from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. like at a public school, students participate in extracurricular activities like band, in which Lightfoot played the snare drum. The rest of the day follows a set schedule: dinner at 5:30 p.m., study time at 7 p.m. and light outs at 10 p.m.

This rigid schedule intensified Lightfoot's longing for his old life. When he left Massanutten at the end of eighth grade, he was homesick and hoped that his military school days were over. But public schools would not accept him yet because of transfer complications, so he enrolled in Fishburne Military School, an all-boys school in Waynesboro, Virginia.

Lightfoot was more disciplined when he entered Fishburne, but he still had occasional brushes with authority. As at Massanutten, when Lightfoot misbehaved at Fishburne, the administration punished him with "tours," general chores and physical work assigned to cadets for drilling or punishment. Tours reinforce the values of military school because they teach cadets to earn privileges, says DeLaney. Regular tours consisted of daily marching and competitive practice for sports teams and clubs, but tours for punishment were much more intense. "Hard physical training was the only way," Lightfoot says.

At Fishburne, he exhausted his pectorals and triceps doing endless push-ups and crawling across the football field. He fought through "six-inches," an abdominal exercise requiring him to lie flat while keeping both legs elevated six inches above the ground, once for nearly 90 minutes.

But compared to log lifting, these tours were just warm-ups. In ninth grade, when he insulted a boy by calling him a "fag," school officials assigned Lightfoot to an afternoon of log lifting with Captain David, a retired military officer. Lightfoot had already heard stories about the infamous officer from other cadets who had endured Captain David's austere treatment firsthand, so even before Lightfoot set eyes on the short, buff man, he had sensed that this would be no ordinary punishment. Now at the tour site, Lightfoot stared at the thick wood log –– a quarter of the length of a telephone pole and painted like a cigarette to discourage kids from smoking –– that he would have to carry on his shoulders.

As wood splinters dug into the nape of his neck, Lightfoot attempted to carry the weight of the log that Captain David had nicknamed "Suzie." Pain seared down Lightfoot's back, which was already weak from a history of medical problems. He couldn't do it. But he realized that Captain David didn't care at all, replacing "Suzie" onto Lightfoot's exhausted shoulders every time he threw it down.

By the end of the warm afternoon, after walking around the campus for one-and-a-half hours with the massive log, sweat dripped down Lightfoot's back, burning his cut and bloody shoulders.

When Lightfoot told his parents about the incident, they showed the school a doctor's note for Lightfoot's back so he could be exempt from log lifting. But it didn't help much; the compilation of alternative tours Lightfoot had to do instead, like more "six-inches" and push-ups, was just as excruciating.

Horror stories

The administration wasn't the only source of physical pain –– students were as well. Colonel Roy Zinser, president of Massanutten, refused to comment on student hazing. However, Captain Carl Lambert, the director of admissions at Fishburne, says that cadets responsible for hazing there are immediately expelled.

By enforcing a policy of expulsion to punish hazing, Fishburne's administration kept student violence down to a minimum, Lightfoot says. In contrast, Massanutten certainly did not encourage hazing, but because it was a much larger campus with a larger student body, its administration had more difficulty preventing it, Lightfoot says. Lightfoot avoided most attacks by remaining on good terms with the entire student body, but other cadets suffered worse fates, he says.

Shortly after Abel arrived on campus, several other cadets assaulted him in his hazing experience. He learned that he simply had to stand up for himself, and with this belligerent attitude, he began bullying other cadets.

But there were times when cadets were unprepared to defend themselves because enemies came at the most unexpected times and places. The military school environment was very different from that of a public school like Blair, where victims of bullying can go home and hide from their tormentors, Lightfoot says. "If you have an enemy, you might be confronted while you're taking your morning shower," he says. At Massanutten, Lightfoot's friend, Hunt, was victimized in such a situation.

One night, Hunt, who was a bit of a troublemaker, insulted a few boys from a different company. During the night, after Hunt had drifted off to sleep, two boys, twin brothers, crept into Hunt's room and super-glued his eyes closed. When Hunt awoke, he struggled to open his eyes and, in the process, tore the tender skin of his eyelids, causing permanent scarring. Hunt had to get surgery to open his eyes again. The school expelled the two perpetrators, Lightfoot says.

Revenge among students was so spontaneous that Lightfoot soon learned to underestimate no one. Furthermore, "it wasn't like a fight you'd see at the cafeteria at Blair. It was guaranteed that you would see bloodshed," Lightfoot says.

Once at Massanutten, Lightfoot saw a cadet dare to shout orders to another cadet from a higher rank. In an environment strictly regulated by the echelons of power based on rank, people of higher ranks demanded respect. The higher-ranked cadet viciously beat up the other boy, punching and head-butting him repeatedly, Lightfoot says. When the lower-ranked cadet walked past, Lightfoot watched blood pour down the boy's face. "I thought he was crying blood," Lightfoot says.

At Fishburne, a few bored rich cadets with plentiful allowance at hand could not leave campus because of a backlog of tours, so they started a short-lived pastime called the "Fight Club." The leaders of the club selected two of the younger cadets, trapped them in a shower and pulled the gates closed. The two fighters brawled until blood was drawn or someone gave in. On these days, the bathroom was jam-packed with spectators betting $40 on each fighter.

This pastime lasted only a few days. Lightfoot never participated, but after he witnessed his second fight, the administration caught word of the underground entertainment and threatened any participating cadets with severe punishment.

Civilian life

As a result of the hazing, Abel has emerged from military school slightly hardened but more disciplined. In military school, his grade point average increased from 1.0 to 2.5. Still, Abel detests the concept of military school. "It's just a solution for parents who don't know how to handle their kids," he says.

Lightfoot agrees with Abel and believes that even harsh punishment cannot change students unless they genuinely wish to change. At Fishburne, Lightfoot's once low grade point average rose to a 3.65, and he received the distinguished honor roll each quarter. By the end of ninth grade, he had earned a higher rank and received an award for being the most improved student. Additionally, his behavior improved after he left military school as he learned to "bite his tongue" when taking orders and became more organized by making schedules for himself. But he feels these small gains were not worth the physical pain he endured and the horrors he witnessed at military school.

Lightfoot had also received a scholarship offering at Fishburne for his remaining three years in high school, but to his teachers' dismay, he refused the offer. He simply couldn't live in the psychologically and physically suffocating environment anymore, where at any time, the administration had the power to take away his freedom as a means for punishment. Though Lightfoot often laughs when looking back at his military school days, on a deeper level, the collective violence made him truly open his eyes to the degree of cruelty that people mercilessly exert in this world, especially at military school.