PRESS ON YOUR SIDE, A15

CREDIT

DATA BREACHES

ON THE RISE

TACKLING A

CULTURE OF

AGGRESSION

While the incidents that led to Sayreville’s decision to cancel its high school football seasonmay not officially be confirmed, anti-bullying advocates say intimidation and bullying in NewJersey schools and sports programs is an under-reported problem.

In fact, one advocate — Dr. Stuart Green, director of the New Jersey Coalition for BullyingAwareness and Prevention — labels the numbers self-reported by school districts as so se-verely under-reported that they are “essentially fake.”

The most recent data from the New Jersey Department of Education show a 36 percent dropin instances of harassment, intimidation and bullying: from 12,024 reported instances in 2011-12 — the first year such data was counted after New Jersey adopted its Anti-Bullying Bill ofRights — to 7,740 instances in the 2012-13 school year, the most recent available data.

The data, while it covers school sports, does not break down instances of harassment insports separately.

But Green and other anti-bullying advocates supported the Sayreville superintendent’s de-cision to shut down the football program, saying it’s the type of strong message that’s needed tobring about cultural changes.

“That they would stop the football season is just a sign that Sayreville is taking it seriously.It’s an example for the entire state,” said Andrea Bowen, executive director of Garden State

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Hazing in N.J. youth sports morecommon than reported, experts say

SUSANNE CERVENKA @SCERVENKA

See ALLEGATIONS, Page A4

INSIDE: Toms

River youth

football coach

suspended over

slur against

players.

STORY, A3

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OBITUARIES A9

OPINION A16

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TABLE D1

WEATHER C8

YOUR MONEY A15

JUDGE OKSREVEL SALEAsset management firm paid 5 cents

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SAYREVILLE — As dozens of Sayreville High Schoolfootball players and their parents gathered at a schoolboard meeting on Tuesday night to protest the dis-trict’s decision to shut down the gridiron program, anational media outlet, citing a source close to the in-vestigation, said law enforcement is looking intowhether upperclassmen digitally penetrated under-classmen on the team.

SI.com, citing sources, including one close to the in-vestigation, reported Tuesday night that the substanti-ated allegations of pervasive and wide-scale incidentsof harassment, intimidation and bullying within theprogram are lewd.

“Investigators are looking into whether upper-classmen on the Sayreville football team digitally pen-etrated the underclassmen on the team,” SI.com re-ported.

News of the school district’s decision to cancel the

Sayreville rockedby allegations asparents protest GREG TUFARO AND SUSAN LOYERSTAFF WRITERS

See SAYREVILLE, Page A4

First off, apologies to my alma materand all my fellow graduates for becom-ing a journalist and bringing down thecurve.

Now, a sure-to-be-controversial web-site has ranked 1,017 colleges and univer-sities not by their football programs orgraduation rates, but by starting and

mid-career salaries.The payscale.com report shows students from

schools that specialize in engineering (Harvey Mudd),technology (CalTech) and Ivy Leagues land jobs thathelp them repay their student loans really fast.

The survey doesn’t take into account things like paydifferences based on geographic location. But it didmake me wonder, how did New Jersey schools fare?

N.J. grad?Here’s howpay ranks

MICHAEL L. DIAMOND IN THE MONEY

Here’s a ranking of New Jersey schools bystarting salary and mid-career salary:

$56,100-$121,000Princeton University, Princeton

$53,900-$98,000New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark

$49,700-$90,400Rutgers University, New Brunswick

$48,200-$89,200Seton Hall University, South Orange

$46,700-$86,000Fairleigh Dickinson, Teaneck

$44,000-$86,000Monmouth University, West Long Branch

$42,200-$83,400Rider University, Lawrence Township

$48,400-$81,700The College of NJ, Ewing Township

$49,700-$80,900Thomas Edison State College, Trenton

$46,400-$76,500Drew University, Madison

$39,200-$75,300Richard Stockton College

$37,700 $66,500Georgian Court University, Lakewood