I believe the HS story, but also find it hard to believe because it's so messed up. Who the heck thinks of something like that? And then convinces other people to go along with it? In my younger days, I was involved in some hazing, both as the newbie and then later when other guys went through it, but it was comparatively tame stuff. Nothing like the story above, where the reaction should be "WTF is wrong with you?"
If I had to guess, I'd say none of the pickle paddlers had that done to them when they were the underclassmen. It might have been threatened but never actually done, like the fake branding scene in Jarhead. But then someone missed the point of the exercise and decided to raise the stakes.
