Experts say sexual hazing has been increasing in the past decade, and high school hazing fuels college hazing.

Ten percent of high school boys report being victims of rape, forced oral sex and other sexual assault, according to a study by the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

“They never contacted the police. They contacted their attorney and they suspended the kids that did this to my son for one day.”

One recent example is in Norwood, Colorado. On an empty school bus at a high school wrestling tournament, three upperclassmen bound a 13-year-old boy with duct tape and sodomized him with a pencil.

Response to an attack

His father, the school's principal, first confronted the coach and reported the incident to the vice president of the school board and the superintendent of schools.

"None of them ever talked to my son to make sure he was okay," said the father, who Here & Now is not naming, in order to protect his son's identity. "They never contacted the police. They contacted their attorney and they suspended the kids that did this to my son for one day."

Under Colorado law, school officials are required to report incidents of abuse to the police or social services.

Life at school became difficult for the boy who was assaulted. Other students were cruel to him.

"They were either making fun of him for what happened or giving him a hard time for actually saying something about it," said the father.

The father found no recourse in the school administration, or sympathy from other parents. People in the town considered the boy a snitch, the father said.

Searching for justice

"We called the department of education, we called everywhere we could," he said. "It was kind of like we were on an island trying to figure out what can we do, but nobody wants to talk about it."

Some people in town made t-shirts supporting the attackers, and some students wore them to school. That's when the father decided to pull his son out of school.

"He was in school everyday," the father said. "He was stronger than anyone, going and facing that every day."

The father reported the incident to the Denver police, and the Denver District Attorney pursued charges against the three attackers. One pleaded guilty to sexual contact without consent, the other two pleaded guilty to third degree assault.