HazingPrevention.Org Blog: News Results for Hazing & Views by Hank Nuwer: Tracking Hazing Deaths, Incidents, Trials in Greek Groups, Athletics, High Schools, Military, and on the Job

Have a good 4th, everyone. I’m camping and back the 6th. Hank Nuwer, Moderator

This letter to editor moved me so.

I went to USA in the early 90’s and was in a popular fraternity there. Just for the sake of things I will not post the name of the fraternity but anyone who went to school back then would pass by the fraternity house on Hillcrest Rd before turning right onto Old Shell in the mornings. I can say as a pledge I was NEVER hazed and the brothers at the time make sure it didn’t happen. Yes, we did drink underage… Who in college didn’t? Even during our ‘hell week’ we were never abused nor forced to drink. There was beer present but the brothers specifically said you don’t have to drink if you don’t want to. No one was punished if they didn’t. This is how a fraternity should be run. That was almost 20 years ago for me and I hope there are still some responsible greek societies down there at USA.

As for Chad Saucier- he was ‘my best friend’ in grade school before transferring to St Pauls. We both moved to Mobile in 5th grade and were the new guys of the class in Catholic grade school. We also lived about 6 houses apart in the same neighborhood so we quickly became good friends. Chad didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Was always wanting to make people laugh and was a great athlete. We grew apart after Chad transferred to St Pauls but still talked every so often and always saw each other all throughout high school at weekend parties. The last time I saw chad was a random encounter in Bienville Square when we were probably 17 I believe. It was Mardi Gras day. We probably had not seen each other in a year or so until then. We hung out for about 15 minutes and caught up on lots of memories. He was so happy and so was I. We then both went our separate ways to our new groups of friends we had. Not too long after that I was at a funeral home standing in line to see Chad one last time. I never made it to the casket. It was too hard and I left. To this day I have never forgotten about Chad and still remember all the good times we had… I still keep the emotions bottled up inside and not sure if they will ever come out. RIP my friend.

In closing, there are good and bad fraternities out there… I hope that the good ones outnumber the bad ones. I am proud to say that I am an alumni of one of the good ones. AEKDB

Moderator: 300 pages of the investigation into multiple hazing incidents involving Sig Ep at the University of Arizona were released to the Arizona Star. Here is the link to the Star.

What is most interesting was the comment by the Sig Ep chapter president saying that hazing did not occur in spite of overwhelming evidence.

For Sigma Phi Epsilon’s excellent Balanced Man chapter follow this link to a North Dakota chapter. The Balanced Man chapters of Sigma Phi Epsilon have by and large had far fewer problems than those who have not adopted the Balance Man program. More here at this link:

The Arizona Star article follows:

Tucson Region
UA fraternity’s hazing documented
Sigma Phi Epsilon was out of control, investigation found
By Aaron Mackey
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.28.2009
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Pledges attending Sigma Phi Epsilon’s “History Night” last fall got a lot more than a lesson in the fraternity’s traditions.
Divided into groups of 10, the pledges rotated through rooms of the house behind University Medical Center and were asked to squat with their backs pressed against the walls and learn about the goals of pledging.
The pledges were asked to memorize traditions and recall one another’s names while being yelled at and intimidated.
And when one pledge didn’t behave as he should — members thought he was disrespectful — a dozen pledges were lined up and slapped one by one.
When a pledge ducked to avoid a slap, he was hit a second time and then had his shirt ripped off.
The episode was one of about 15 hazing incidents detailed in a University of Arizona investigation that ended in March with one of the largest and oldest fraternities, known informally as Sig Ep, getting booted from campus for three years.
More than 300 pages of documents released to the Arizona Daily Star through a public-records request paint a picture of a fraternity out of control as an alumni board and executive officers clashed with ex-members booted for their bad behavior.
The power struggle created an environment in which pledges were slapped, kicked and forced to drink beer until they vomited as part of an initiation program.
It also set the stage for an unregulated off-campus party at which a UA student reported being sexually assaulted in a pledge’s apartment after she was given a date-rape drug, the investigation concluded.
But the former president of the fraternity, Tyler Babcock, said the UA investigation took events out of context and said that no hazing occurred. While he wouldn’t discuss specific incidents, he said the university showed only one side of the story.
“The university drew an image of us being rowdy, crazy kids that are running around and partying,” he said. “It was a very organized house, and all the kids in the house are great kids.”
However, a letter from the UA that is signed by fraternity leaders states that they agree that the allegations are factually correct.
It’s not clear whether the UA punished any members of the fraternity for the hazing, alcohol and reported sexual-assault violations or if there were any sanctions against it other than losing recognition on campus until 2012.
Individual student punishment is protected by federal law, and the identities of students interviewed by UA officials were blacked out of the copies of the investigation the Star obtained.
The same law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, also prevents the UA from disclosing any further details about the reported sexual assault, said Carol Thompson, dean of students. Thompson would say only that the UA completed its investigation into the incident.
It’s not clear whether police investigated the incident. Neither the Tucson nor the UA police departments would provide information on whether they investigated the incident, despite being given a week to do so.
The chapter’s adviser, Dan Knauss, said in a lengthy statement that most of the hazing was conducted by students who had been kicked out of the fraternity after the university put the chapter on probation.
“Unfortunately, these individuals were not confronted by the new officers, to the extent they were aware of their activities,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“This is not to say that there weren’t violations of the university’s code by some current members, primarily involving alcohol and minor hazing.”
Multiple requests for comment from Sig Ep’s national headquarters went unanswered.
The documents detail a wide range of hazing, including:
• Mandating that pledges carry cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and Sour Patch Kids candy for members of the fraternity.
• Requiring pledges to be at the fraternity house from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays unless they had class or a written excuse for where they were.
• Making pledges clean the fraternity house as well as a member’s off-campus apartment after a party.
• Forcing pledges to perform headstands near walls and wall-sits while older members yelled at them and in one instance attempted to kick a pledge’s legs out from underneath him.
The most serious violations revolved around daily song practice, during which pledges sang traditional fraternity songs while members listened.
The investigation details that members threw paper balls at pledges, shot spitballs at them and pushed them while they sang. Some members threw ice down the pledges’ shirts, the investigation said.
On Fridays, the underage pledges were forced to drink beer while they practiced the songs. The pledges were told to drink until they vomited, with garbage cans put out for them to use, the investigation details.
After they finished vomiting, the pledges would have to resume singing and drinking, according to the investigation.
Babcock said that none of the pledges was required to participate in any activities the university classified as hazing. They were only encouraged to do so.
“There was no real hazing,” he said. “Everybody was always given the choice, and the choices were not detrimental to active status in the house.”
Then there was Bayonet Night, at which about 30 pledges were lined up and blindfolded at the fraternity house. They were marched in line to a nearby basketball court and told to wait in silence.
After about 30 minutes, the pledges removed their blindfolds and realized one of them was gone. The missing pledge had been cut — “blackballed,” in the fraternity’s parlance.
The investigation indicates that members took the pledge away, with other pledges interviewed by officials speculating he was removed for either not meeting fraternity standards or because he was awkward around women at fraternity parties.
Babcock said there was nothing menacing about the ritual and that the ceremony was similar to those conducted by other fraternities on campus.
He said the decision to part ways with the pledge was mutual. “He was not forcefully removed. If the kid doesn’t meet standards, it is expressed verbally and very calmly.”
Babcock also blamed the divide that developed in the house on the university investigation, not tension between former members and those who remained after the national organization intervened in 2007.
After the fraternity was placed on probation for hazing that year, the national fraternity formed an alumni advisory group and reviewed every member. More than 70 were booted.
But those individuals would still show up to fraternity events and recruitment activities, with many responsible for the hazing, according to the investigation.
Babcock said that in the wake of the membership shake-up, it was hard for younger members of the fraternity to know who was allowed at the house.
There never was any confrontation between the former members and those at the house, and the hazing attributed to the ex-members was blown out of proportion, Babcock said.
The investigation details that several members and ex-members intimidated pledges both during their initiation and after the UA began its investigation.
One member quit after being described as gay. He was ridiculed, and members used slurs to describe him, according to the investigation.
The pledges who cooperated with UA investigators were labeled traitors and threatened, with one pledge saying he was told by a member that “we will hunt you down with masks and kill you if you ever tell,” according to the report.
The member later denied threatening the student.
On StarNet: Log on to www.azstarnet.com/pdf to view copies of the summary of the UA’s investigation into Sigma Phi Epsilon and a statement from the local chapter’s adviser.

The Niagara Gazette reported that the closed-door trial for two 18-year-old defendants resumes Monday.

The way the trial is being handled is totally removed from the open trial of those students found guilty of multiple charges in an incident involving Robertson HS in New Mexico.

The paper noted that an additional July 6 trial involving baseball coaches William M. Atlas and Thomas J. Baia will be heard by Town Justice Town Justice George R. Berger. Charges are three counts of endangering the welfare of a child during a much-disputed hazing allegation made by a younger player.

According to the Gazette, “Witnesses for the defense may be called Monday, according to Andrew Vona, the attorney for Christopher Sidote, and Kevin P. Shelby, the attorney for Colton Sherman. The third defendant, Geoffrey A. Seefeldt, 19, pleaded guilty on a plea deal.

Sherman and Sidote, have been charged with forcible touching and first- and second-degree hazing. Whatever the decision of Berger, the record will be sealed. The defendants will not have a criminal record.”

Want to read the whole story? Here is the link.

Here is the link to story

JournalStar.com
Two Sigma Chi members plead no contest in hazing case
By CORY MATTESON / Lincoln Journal Star
Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009 – 08:44:00 pm CDT
Two Sigma Chi fraternity members charged in connection to the hazing of University of Nebraska-Lincoln students pleaded no contest Wednesday to one count each of procuring alcohol for a minor.

Both Christopher Wozniak, 22, and Samuel Bates, 20, were found guilty by Lancaster County Judge Gale Pokorny. They are scheduled to be sentenced July 31 for the misdemeanor offenses.

In all, eight Sigma Chi members were charged with hazing or procuring alcohol for a minor, or both. Neither Wozniak nor Bates were ever charged with hazing former Sigma Chi pledges.

In February, a former pledge told UNL police he was subjected to several hazing activities, including one in which a stripper —acting at the request of a Sigma Chi member — briefly anally penetrated him with a vibrator.

Several times beginning in March, UNL police searched the Sigma Chi house, 1510 Vine St., and uncovered evidence to support some hazing allegations, including a letter to the fraternity’s national organization detailing a paddling incident and a party involving strippers, according to court documents.

Court documents also show former pledges reported paying $200 each for a “social fund” used to buy alcohol, including for underage fraternity members. Police found evidence of the fund in the house, including a bank statement addressed to the Sigma Chi Social Fund.

Police found an abundance of alcohol in the house. Alcohol is forbidden on the UNL campus.

UNL has since suspended the fraternity.

Three members of the fraternity still face charges of hazing and procuring alcohol for a minor. Two members still face hazing charges, and one member still faces a procuring alcohol for a minor charge.

All six fraternity members who still face charges are scheduled to appear in Lancaster County Court on Monday.

Procuring alcohol for a minor is a Class I misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year’s imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. There is no minimum penalty.

Copyright © 2002-2009 Lincoln Journal Star. All rights reserved.

Sorority coverage

Public Forum Letter
Updated: 06/24/2009 03:15:32 PM MDT

Several points were missed in “Sorority sister gets jail time, $1,000 fine” ( Tribune , June 17) about the hazing death of my brother, Michael Starks:

» The defendant, Whitney Miller, had six priors for underage drinking; Starks had zero. There is no basis to say Michael had been drinking for years.

» This was a fraternity/sorority hazing, with at least a three-year history. Sigma Nu was a corrupting institution; that’s why it is closed.

» Whitney Miller pleaded guilty and expressed sympathy and remorse, but afterward her lawyer made a statement to the press and blamed the victim. This negates her apology and sympathy.

» Since the victim cannot defend himself, it is disrespectful to blame him or for a newspaper to print that. That came from a defense attorney who just lost a case. It was spite.

There were many victims in this Utah State University hazing incident: Michael Starks, the other young people who participated and countless family members and friends. As a community, we need to stop hiding from what we do not understand and use this tragedy to start an honest dialogue about hazing, alcohol poisoning, underage drinking and the responsibility we have to those around us.

Georgie Starks

Salt Lake City

Updated: 06/23/2009 04:23:25 PM MDT

I was disturbed by the report on Whitney Miller, a Utah State University student, pleading guilty in the hazing death of Michael Starks (”Sorority sister gets jail time, $1,000 fine,” Tribune , June 17). The only quotes were her defense attorney’s accusations and innuendoes. Aren’t there two sides to every story?

Miller pleaded guilty and expressed remorse, but her lawyer’s attempt to blame the victim makes her statements a bit weak. Earl Xiaz stated that Starks was “primarily responsible for his own demise.” Based on other articles I’ve read, I disagree; regardless, Starks has paid — with his life. That does not mean others who share the responsibility should be let off.

Colleges and universities need to pay more attention to what goes on in these establishments. Hazing should be disallowed. These are adults, albeit young, and in many respects are responsible for their own decisions, but parents expect the schools to watch their children carefully.

Whitney Miller has to spend 30 days in jail and do community service. The Starks family has to live without their son and brother for the rest of their lives. Miller got off easy.

M. Veronica Brand

West Jordan

Blog: Occasional Thoughts from NYSSWA President John Moriello

John Moriello’s NYSSWA blog
Monday, June 22, 2009: Wilson hazing cases falling apart
Leading off today: Some 14 months after headline-grabbing allegations of sexual assualt during a hazing incident, The Buffalo News reports that the case against the accused is in shambles.

And now people in and around the Town of Wilson are wondering whether it’s a case of details from the incident involving varsity and JV baseball players being blown out of proportion, a botched investigation or a combination of the two.

What started as allegations that seniors had taken some younger players to the back of a school bus and forced objects into their rectums has deteriorated from felony aggravated sexual abuse to charges at the misdemeanor and violation level that might not hold up to scrutiny in the courtroom.

Similarly, coaches William M. Atlas and Thomas J. Baia, to be tried in Town Court on July 6 on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, face a less uncertain future. They are accused of not stopping whatever was happening on the bus, and their attorneys are poised to argue that there was nothing that needed to be stopped.

That’s the paper’s take on the situation following a careful examination of court filings as well as interviews with lawyers involved in the cases against the coaches and three players.

Reports about what happened April 17, 2008, led the State Police to say the incident involved criminal sexual acts. They also alleged there were similar incidents in previous years, laying the foundation for child-endangerment charges filed against the coaches.

However, Town Justice George R. Berger has barred the mention of previous incidents at the coaches’ trial, unless the defense were to bring it up. The paper also reported there is an internal investigation by the State Police into how the matter has been handled.

Guilty pleas planned in hazing

* By JORDAN BLUM

The seven former Southern University marching band members arrested for hazing last year have accepted a plea bargain to avoid prison time, the East Baton Rouge Parish district attorney said Tuesday.

The seven suspects will plead guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit second-degree battery, which is a felony, and misdemeanor hazing, District Attorney Hillar Moore III said.

“This is a first-offense for all of these individuals,” Moore said. “But, most importantly, this is what the victims requested.”

The seven likely will get three years probation, with the possibility of the probation ending after one year, Moore said.

The district attorney said he is pleased with the outcome because the former band members are pleading guilty to a felony.

That will “resonate” at Southern and other campuses, he said.

The hazing incident was part of a Nov. 25 initiation into the marching band’s unofficial French horn fraternity — “Mellow Phi Fellow” — prior to the Bayou Classic football game, according to arrest records.

Two victims were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, but were eventually released.

A third victim, who was not hospitalized, withdrew from the initiation after being struck more than 50 times by a 2-by-4 inch board, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office records state.

“As part of the initiation ritual, the three subjects were blindfolded and told to remove their shirts,” according to the arrest reports. “They then had water splashed on them as senior members struck them numerous time with open hands.

“The three victims were then told to bend over at the waist, and the senior members began striking them numerous times with a large wooden board,” the arrest reports state.

Moore said final paperwork could be filed today with the state district court in Baton Rouge.

The perpetrators could have initially faced 25 years in prison and more than $25,000 in fines.