Fast Times at Millburn High

In my township, there's been a little bit of buzz around drama in our high school. Millburn High, which serves as the public school for residents of both Millburn and Short Hills, became the focus of probably a little unwanted attention when it ended up in the New York Times around the hazing of freshmen girls.

The hazing, which includes being shoved into a locker (I suppose girls don't have typical guy-type hazing like Ben Gay in the underwear and swallowing backwashed soda and such) and the distribution of a "slut list" which to my amazement, some girls become distraught because of their omission from the list. Let me repeat that: there are girls who are upset that they did not make the "slut list". Wow, I know it's not necessarily cool to be on the honor roll, but I shudder at the thought of my daughter running up to me twelve years in tears devastated because she "just missed the cut".

The article mentions Millburn High's top ranking in New Jersey, and I'm wondering what the relationship there is between the academic competitiveness of the school and this seamy social undercurrent. Maybe it's the "Gossip Girl" syndrome, only the public school version. Some privileged kids who seemingly have their entire lives mapped ahead of them break out and do dumb things - partially out of boredom, maybe even out of rebellion for the empty opulence of their lives. To be fair, it's likely just a small fraction of the overwhelmingly (relatively) well-adjusted kids in the school.

That being said... home-schooling, anyone?