How Andover Is Dealing with the Hazing

Andover High School principal Thomas Sharkey said there were a few major points he wanted to convey to the Andover High School student body about the

Overall, he said that he wanted to students to understand the dynamics of the alleged incident that occurred at a basketball camp at Stonehill College in Easton in July and involved Andover boys basketball players.

Sharkey and school superintendent Marinel McGrath reported this school community discussion to the Andover School Committee Thursday night.

"We had a number of points that we wanted to stress," said Sharkey about an assembly this past Tuesday. "Understanding that privacy matters required us to be discrete, we wanted to distinguish between bystanders and students that actually did something to another student."

Sharkey also said he wanted to stress forgiveness in this incident as well.

"Forgiveness has to be a part of this and compassion has to be a part of this healing process," said Sharkey. "Everybody is a member of this community."

Lastly, he wanted students to know that retaliation for whistleblowing or anything else is considered just as bad as the incident itself.

"Retaliation is treated just the same as bullying," said Sharkey.

Students were also given a day off this week and teachers met at school to discuss, among other things, the hazing incident and how it has affected the school community.

"Its had a tremendous effect on us as a community," said Andover superintendent of schools Marinel McGrath.

McGrath said that it is important that people understand that it has happened and know that the community does not want to forget about the incident but process it and learn from it.

"While this was certainly a very terrible ordeal for us to live though," said McGrath. "We will become a much strong culture of caring."

WBZ reported earlier this week that a .