Work is punishing me, and others for an insult that was said at a meeting that I did not attend. NY

Location: New York

So at my job, which is a lifeguard civil servant job, had a meeting where all the new hires introduced themselves and said jokes, which typically are digs are the upper management or things that happened prior to them joining. None of the new hires knew any of the context behind the jokes. But apparently, one of the new hires said a joke that was too personal for two of the captains, as it was about their younger brother who isn’t too great of a lifeguard. Due to this every person at work is having to do a workout as a punishment for what happened. In addition, the new hire that said the joke had to do a workout until she cried, and was repeatedly threatened during this workout, because she didn’t know who gave her the joke the say.

I have been off the last few days and as you can guess, I do not want to do this workout. I think it’s an abuse of power and the whole situation is completely out of hand. I’m thinking about contacting HR but I don’t know if it’s worth it due the situation being so handled.