Members of the East Lansing community feel hazing is an important enough issue to hold a forum to address local concerns. The forum was held last week at the Hannah Community Center to talk about confronting hazing in the community.

The meeting followed the suicide of a local man who had been bullied and hazed in the East Lansing school system. At the national level, there was an incident in Northbrook, Ill., where five high school junior girls went to a hospital after senior girls covered them in mud, paint and feces. A dozen-plus students accused in the hazing face misdemeanor batter-charges.

We can hope punishment such as suspensions along with counseling will help deter future hazers from carrying out their deeds.

Hazing has been around for a long time, and there's a word that goes hand-in-hand with it - tradition. This form of "tradition" can be avoided if more people are educated on the effects of hazing. A forum is a good start, but it shouldn't end there. It continues in the home with parenting and in the schools with students policing themselves.

Parents need to step in and be parents. The Northbrook case is a sad example of parents being irresponsible with their children, as they were charged in providing alcohol to them. At least there is comfort in some of the parents in our community, who challenge those hiding behind tradition.

Most importantly, students need to respect adults and encourage their peers to do the same. They are the ones who hold the most influence over hazing and handing down of so-called traditions.

The bottom line is students don't take hazing seriously enough.

Parents shouldn't encourage their children to have a few cold ones and, instead, should start asking more questions about their children's whereabouts and social life.

Most of the time it seems nothing is done about an issue until it causes a lot of turmoil. An easy way to avoid this is to educate people on the underlying problems that cause hazing and bullying in hopes of eventually eliminating them.