Link to the clarification 

SEATTLE - A University of Washington student died after falling from a window at his fraternity house over the weekend.

Emergency crews were called early Saturday morning after 21-year-old Kevin MacDonald of Kent fell head-first into the concrete ground from a third-floor window of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity house. He died later that evening.

Police say people reported that MacDonald had been drinking the night before. UW and Seattle police are investigating and an autopsy is pending.

In 2004, the UW suspended Alpha Sigma Phi’s recognition after two students complained about taunting and hazing at the fraternity. The UW has since restored the fraternity’s status.

AEP shut down
Michigan Daily - Ann Arbor,MI,USA
… “There were some risk-management issues,” said Fediuk, citing the University hazing report that found the sorority house guilty of hazing its pledges

_____

Victoria allegations: HIGH SCHOOL HAZING
http://www.kake.com/news/headlines/1689401.html
August 16

Some football players at a Kansas high school are facing shocking allegations of hazing their teammates.

Parents say the high school hazing incident happened on school grounds.

Players were attending an overnight camp at the high school in Victoria, Kansas.

Victoria is home to the 8-man Football state champions.

So, when a report of alleged hazing surfaces, it becomes the talk of the town.

Superintendent Linda Kenne didn’t want to go on camera .

She says she cannot release many details while the investigation is ongoing.

She’ll only say something did happen and there will be consequences for the parties involved.

She says the school board will review policies and procedures.

Although people are remaining tight-lipped, some parents are concerned about reports of possible sexual battery.

The alleged hazing happened during a three-day football camp a couple weeks ago at the high school, although Kenne says it was not a high-school sponsored camp.

The alleged incident reportedly involved freshmen players and happened after the coaches had gone to bed in a different room.

In a separate incident that weekend, a junior player was reportedly injured during a pillow fight.

Police say this will remain a school issue unless someone files a complaint with the police department.

___________
By KYLIE CRAIG
Alligator Writer

UF’s Kappa Alpha Fraternity chapter will be under scrutiny this Fall after one of its newly inducted members shared details of the organization’s hazing procedures with University Police.

William Travis Page, 22, was questioned after his involvement in a March 18 hazing incident when new members were ordered to steal signs from local businesses.

Page discussed details of the organization’s hazing ritual associated with the induction process of new members. It included physical training, such as sit-ups, running and push-ups as a form of punishment, as well as cleaning the houses of fraternity members and allowing chapter members to paddle newly inducted members with paddles they were instructed to buy.

Page told police physical training occurred when new members didn’t complete an assigned task or didn’t know the names of current Kappa Alpha members listed in a “black book.”

The training, which took place on Flavet Field, involved approximately an hour and a half of exercise when no liquids were provided, and some new members, including Page, vomited.

Page said he also was assigned three nights a week to drive members of the fraternity who had been drinking to and from various locations.

Kappa Alpha President Dan Boda said his chapter’s hazing rituals aren’t what they once were.

“The momentum of hazing in KA has been slowed down in the past couple years,” he said. “This incident will put a firm stop to it.”

UPD reports detailing Page’s allegations have been handed to Student Judicial Affairs, and a hearing with Kappa Alpha is being scheduled.

The organization is on interim suspension prohibiting Kappa Alpha from taking part in any chapter activities on or off campus, and the chapter house is closed until the hearing.

Former coach speaks out on hazing scandal
Tuesday , June 06, 2006 Posted: 08:18 PM

DONNA – The coach school administrators fired amid a football hazing scandal spoke to NEWSCHANNEL 5 this week. David Evans said the story was twisted to implicate him.

“There’s not one witness involved in this that said I knew anything or I took part in it,” Evans claimed.

For months, Evans refused to comment about the incident. But now he says a report released by the Texas Education Agency claiming he knew about the hazing is simply not true.

“We did the right things. We didn’t know,” Evans said. “You can’t fix a thing not broke…and these kids involved made a bad judgment…but I still support these kids, because I love them, and respect them.”

Four Donna football players were arrested, charged with assault and sexual assault. The police reports claim several underclassmen were victims of hazing.

“They claimed I should’ve known. I guess in life anything bad that happens to you — you should’ve known,” Evans said. “I guess that is her decision. I am disappointed in how she took the facts and manipulated them into making me look like the boogeyman.”

The report also claimed he pressured a coach to change a decision to suspect some female athletes caught cheating on a test. Evans said cheating was not the issue.

“It was a Title Nine issue,” Evans said. “They wanted the girls to be punished, and boys to run in the track meet.”

Evans said he is adjusting to life after coaching.

“Sure, I have regrets. Four months ago I was on top of the world. I was one of the best coaches in the Valley. I was well respected, and I had a lot of friends. I think all that’s changed. Now I am unemployed looking for a job…and I don’t have many friends,” Evans said.

He still plans to appeal the school board’s decision. He hopes to someday coach football again.

____

Jackson Clarion Ledger - Jackson,MS,USA
OXFORD — The University of Mississippi has suspended the Tau Eta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority for hazing, according to reports. …

__________

Norton High School, Ohio

Akron Beacon Journal - Akron,OH,USA
… The hazing incident at a boys basketball camp at the University of Cincinnati last month involved students tying up two other Norton students and “a pillow …

______

Click for full story

In what the University of California is calling “the most severe and comprehensive disciplinary action that UC Berkeley has taken against a fraternity in several years,” the fraternity accused in last spring’s pellet gun hazing attack on a Berkeley street will be disbanded and forced to reorganize.

But criminal charges have yet to be filed against suspects for allegedly shooting an unidentified 19-year-old Pi Kappa Phi pledge last April with an air pellet gun and forcing him to consume alcohol and marijuana.

The Gamma chapter of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, which had been in continuous operation on the Berkeley campus since its founding in 1909, must suspend all operations for one year, and will have all current members placed on inactive alumni status.

When it is allowed to reopen in the fall of 2006, the fraternity is expected to operate under what the university calls “a host of conditions, restrictions, and close oversight by the campus administration and the fraternity’s national headquarters.” The national fraternity will decide if any current chapter members will be allowed to join the reorganized chapter.

The punishment, which is just short of a complete disbanding of the 58-member chapter, was decided in an agreement reached between UC Berkeley officials and the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The fraternity must also pay a $4,000 fine, perform 750 hours of community service, and produce a seminar on the dangers of hazing. Fraternity and sorority hazing is banned by UC Berkeley campus.

Pi Kappa Phi Chief Executive Officer Mark E. Timmes said in a statement that “our investigation indicated a culture of alcohol, drugs, hazing and lack of respect for others which is unacceptable.”

UC Berkeley Dean of Students Karen Kenney added that “the offenses in this case were especially shocking and disturbing. Strong disciplinary action was called for and is appropriate.”

A UC Berkeley press release said that the fraternity punishment “also addresses a March 4 incident in which the chapter held an unauthorized party involving various alcohol use violations, including the serving of alcohol to minors.”

Berkeley Police Public Information Officer Joe Okies said that the April 8 pellet gun incident is “still under investigation” and declined to give a figure as to how many suspects are being investigated.

Bay City News (BCN) reported this week that 15 fraternity members took place in the hazing, with three members shooting him multiple times with what they described as two BB guns. UC Berkeley describes the weapons as pellet guns. BCN said the 15 fraternity member figure came from Okies, but Okies said by telephone that he has never given out an exact number of those allegedly involved in the incident.

This is not the first time that a Pi Kappa Phi chapter has been cited for hazing.

In 2001, three Chico State Pi Kappa Phi members pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor in the alcohol overdose death of Adrian Heideman, and eight fraternity members agreed to pay Heideman’s family $500,000.

A year later, the chapter reached a confidential, undisclosed settlement with the Heideman’s family over a lawsuit in which the Heidemans charged that he had died in a hazing incident. The Chico State chapter later disbanded.›

_______

Avoca HS (Iowa) Hazing

WHO-TV - Des Moines,IA,USA
… school wrestlers and the coach’s adult son from AHST High School in Avoca have been sentenced to probation and community service for a February incident …

_______

WVEC.com (subscription) - Norfolk,VA,USA (2005)
Seven sailors and the executive officer aboard the frigate USS Kauffman have been punished in connection with hazing of six crew members over two years, a Navy …
____

5/20/05

Orlando Sentinel (subscription) - Orlando,FL,USA
… 3, 2005: In an Orlando Sentinel story, the mother of a freshman girls soccer player says her daughter suffered a head injury in a hazing incident in January. …

_______

UW fraternity suspended after hazing allegations

05:37 PM PDT on Thursday, May 19, 2005

By DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News

SEATTLE — A University of Washington fraternity is under the microscope after the UW released documents alleging serious acts of hazing.
Video Clip

Deborah Feldman reports

The Zeta Psi Fraternity was sanctioned this spring for hazing pledges.

Justin Muhlbeier was thrilled to pledge Zeta Psi fraternity as a freshman but what he didn’t like were the sometimes degrading tasks imposed upon the pledges.

“When we were doing pushups in tobacco spit and stuff like that it was just kind of ridiculous,” he said.

He said he’d hoped as a sophomore he’d be able to change some of the hazing practices.

“My whole goal was to go through it and change it so you know, nobody would really have to go through what I went through,” he said.

But Justin said when he and a few other fraternity brothers made an issue out of hazing, they were kicked out of the fraternity. That’s when they decided to get university officials involved.

In documents obtained from the university by the school’s newspaper, the Daily, dozens of hazing allegations were made. They included:

- sleep deprivation;

- being blindfolded and forced to drink as much as a fifth of alcohol;

- being forced to imitate or perform sex acts; and

- being forced to clean the chapter house after active members deliberately soiled areas with human waste.

KING

Zeta Psi president Sean Hughey said the allegations are past history.

The current Zeta Psi president said not all the allegations are true, but that all of them are past history.

“Two years ago, yes, this house had a problem with hazing,” Sean Hughey said. “We eliminated that on our own last year and these guys that were removed from the chapter…Although they would make themselves out to be whistleblowers, that’s actually not the case at all. They were removed for not cooperating with the chapter.”

Justin said that is untrue and that he’s proud about sticking to his principles.

As a result of the allegations, a panel of university and Greek officials decided to suspend the fraternity until Sept. 27 of this year. At that point, the fraternity will have to give a detailed description of their new pledge and initiation program.

Once Zeta Psi completes its suspension, its members will be on a probationary status for the next two quarters.

by Ken Fortenberry

LMS Wrestlers Are Accused of Sexual Hazing on School Bus After Match

Was it just “horseplay” among teen boys or something much worse?
Was it just “inappropriate touching” or was it a criminal act deserving of prosecution?
That’s what authorities and parents are still trying to figure out after three members of the East Lincoln Middle School wrestling team were suspended from school and kicked off the team following a sexual hazing incident that occurred on a bus while the team was traveling from a match in Rutherford County.
Two of the students are facing misdemeanor assault charges as a result of the incident that was investigated by school resource officer Robert Milton. (Their names are not made public because they are juveniles).
Here’s what happened:
The middle school team traveled to Chase Middle School in Rutherford County on Thursday, Dec. 6 for a wrestling match. The bus was driven by one of the coaches, and another coach also was aboard.
After the match, which the team lost, the bus was traveling back to Lincoln County and according to several accounts the boys were a bit noisy and rowdy, which is not unusual for traveling middle school athletes.
However, the rowdiness and horseplay turned ugly when two eighth grade wrestlers reportedly yanked down the pants of several younger wrestlers and began harassing them, physically and verbally.
“They went too far and kept carrying it on,” said Milton.
One of the eighth graders supposedly forced their faces into his crotch, grabbed their private parts, and also simulated a sexual act on them while using foul language.
Two other students reportedly stood by, providing a shield so the coaches up front in the bus couldn’t’ see.
Five or six students were reportedly assaulted and harassed by the older wrestlers.
No one said anything after the bus returned to school, but one student told his parent on the way home about what occurred on the bus, and she immediately turned around and went back to the campus.
Most everyone was gone by that time except for the coaches, and the parent told them what her son had just related to her. The stunned coaches informed principal Marty Helton about 9:15 that evening, and the parent notified the Sheriff’s Office which reportedly told her that since it was a school matter it should first be addressed by the school resource officer.
The following morning the parent went to the school and gave authorities the names of the students known to have been involved in the incident. Principal Helton said school officials talked to the students, their parents, and then asked them to make written statements.
“They all wrote statements of what they observed or what happened to them or who was doing what,” said Helton.
The case was turned over to school resource officer Milton that same morning, and he began an investigation that included taking statements from team members last Monday, Dec. 10.
Lincoln County School Superintendent J. David Martin, called the incident “inappropriate horseplay on the bus,” and confirmed that the boys who attacked the other students were suspended and removed from the team for “unsportsmanlike conduct.”
Martin said that since there was no “skin-to-skin” contact, it was his understanding that it was not a sexual assault in the legal sense of the term.
“There was some inappropriate touching. . . and I’m not condoning this,” he said. “The behavior was out of context.”
Principal Helton would not say what action, if any, would be taken against the coaches.
“I have talked to them and I have addressed this on a one-on-one level,” she said.
The coaches are well respected by parents, students and faculty at the school, and were not aware of what was happening on the bus, she said.
“The parents respect the coaches and the coaches are sick about this,” she said.
One parent, however, says the coaches should have been more vigilant and says the boys who are accused of harassing the other wrestlers have been a behavior problem in the past.
“This trouble should have been cut off the team early on,” the parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
The parent also expressed concern about retribution once the suspended students return to school, especially since one of them reportedly threatened a team member for talking to authorities.
Principal Helton said she not tolerate any retribution.
“I’ve advised our teachers to be more vigilant with monitoring students,” she said, noting that she has a plan in place to deal with the students when they return.
“They will sit with me and we will discuss their behaviors from here on….they will be told that I expect no comments from them or from anybody on their behalf (to the other students).”
Helton said the incident was “sad” and put a damper on a good season for the wrestling team. “You have so many good things that go on in our school…it’s just a bad situation that gives a negative perception about the school.”
In addition to the suspensions, Helton said “the parents of the students originally involved were appalled and assured me they will handle it at home.”

While the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has to deal with the rising rates of suicides amongst veterans let alone those that have recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Russian Army too is dealing with its fair share.

On Thursday, May 29, the United States Army released a report that there have been 115 reported suicides in 2007 amongst the active Army, National Guard, and Army Reserve. In 2006, the number of reported suicides was at least 102.

However, the number of reported suicides in the Russian Army goes beyond 300. But, the situation and circumstances are far different.

Recent reports in regards to suicides amongst US troops stem from repeated and extended tours of duty. While there have been many initiatives launched to help servicemen that have returned, the number of suicides continue to increase.

The case of the Russian Army is completely different. According to human rights groups and few former Russian Army commanders, the number of suicides is blamed by violence and negligence by officers and the top brass. The older soldiers put the newly drafted conscripts through hazing. The hazing has been blamed for the number of suicides.

The hazing has raised major concerns that thousands of young men try to get out of the obligatory draft. There have been many that even resorted to bribes in order to be deemed as unfit to serve in the military. In short, they do not want to get drafted out of fear of getting hazed.

Currently, the Russian government is trying to launch initiatives to stop the bullying and hazing. While Russia too has its fair share of soldier suicides, it is attributed by a completely different circumstance.

Link above

Today, the House Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight held a hearing on detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay, focusing on a recent FBI inspector general (IG) report documenting abusive practices at the facility. The report describes, among other things, a “war crimes file” created by FBI agents concerned about the interrogation tactics they witnessed at Guantanamo.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), however, sees nothing wrong with the accounts of abuse. While questioning IG Glenn Fine today, Rohrabacher insisted the report documented nothing more than “fraternity boy pranks and hazing pranks,” and hardly constituted torture:

ROHRABACHER: They seem like more like pranks, hazing pranks from some fraternity than some well-thought-out policy of how do you torture someone and get information from them. […]

I will have to tell you, when most people hear the word “torture,” which has been bandied around here, I don’t believe that they think of it as holding a growling dog near somebody but not the growling dog — you know, it’s one thing to have the growling dog eating someone’s leg or arm versus — which is absolute torture. It’s another thing to have a growling dog around, or putting panties on someone’s head, or discussing — telling him he had repressed homosexual tendencies in his presence. I mean, I’m sorry, these are acts of humiliation.

Watch a compilation of Rohrabacher’s outrageous claims:

Rohrabacher mocked the FBI for taking what he called a “holier than thou” stance against harsh interrogations. Yet Fine repeatedly reminded Rohrabacher that the FBI found the interrogations not only abusive, but also “in their view, ineffective.” Rohrabacher admitted, “I don’t know what’s effective and what’s not,” but continued to insist the documented instances of abuse were “fraternity boy pranks and hazing pranks” that “certainly don’t fit into the category of torture.”

Rohrabacher joins a long list of right-wing torture apologists who refuse to heed the words even of Gen. David Petraeus, who unequivocally rejected torture as producing information of only “questionable value.”

Digg It!

Transcript:

ROHRABACHER: You’re suggesting that the behavior of, what, panties on his head in order to try to, you know, confuse him and to pressure him, that is unacceptable interrogation technique for a man who was involved in a conspiracy to kill tens of thousands of Americans?

FINE: What we are saying is what were reported by the FBI, a number of concerns about that, not simply putting panties on his head, but the course of interrogation was both abusive and, in their view, ineffective.

[…]

ROHRABACHER: We were humiliating him. There was humiliating tactics on the part of the interrogator, right?

FINE: They were what the FBI and others considered abusive tactics that were ineffective.

[…]

ROHRABACHER: Because many of the things that you are suggesting here were just so unacceptable by this man who was conspiring to kill tens of thousands of American civilians, they seem like more like pranks, hazing pranks from some fraternity than some well-thought-out policy of how do you torture someone and get information from them.

I mean, OK, telling — describing his mother and sister as whores, that’s certainly not a nice thing to do.

I will have to tell you, when most people hear the word “torture,” which has been bandied around here, I don’t believe that they think of it as holding a growling dog near somebody but not the growling dog — you know, it’s one thing to have the growling dog eating someone’s leg or arm versus — which is absolute torture. It’s another thing to have a growling dog around, or putting panties on someone’s head, or discussing — telling him he had repressed homosexual tendencies in his presence.

I mean, I’m sorry, these are acts of humiliation.

[…]

ROHRABACHER: OK. So when we’re talking about this position that the FBI, this moral stand that the FBI took on this, it was basically to say that a man who might have information that could lead us to prevent an attack that would cost the lives of tens of thousands of Americans, that we should not — we should never think that it was acceptable to put panties on his head or try to humiliate him verbally in order to break his will? That’s not an acceptable interrogation even if it’s going to save the lives of all these other people in the end?

FINE: Congressman Rohrabacher, what the FBI said that they objected to, for a variety of reasons, one, it was not effective in obtaining intelligence. The FBI had a longstanding ability and skills in obtaining intelligence from people who didn’t want to give it to them, whether it was domestic or Al Qaida.

[…]

ROHRABACHER: Right. Except — except when it came down to putting panties on the head of some guy who was actually engaged in the conspiracy to kill all these Americans, the FBI again decided that they were holier than thou.

Moscow Times report

Limestone College president fuming over hazing
By LARRY HILLIARD Ledger Staff Writer larry@gaffneyledger.com

“I haven’t come to a decision yet, but there is a possibility of more forfeits of games. … Supposedly the initiation of the freshmen was all voluntary. But it still falls under my definition of hazing.” — Dr. WALT GRIFFIN Limestone College president

Hazing — long a rite of passage for fraternities, sororities and some college athletic teams — won’t be tolerated at Limestone College.

That’s the message president Dr. Walt Griffin is expected to send today when he announces further sanctions on the baseball team.

The sanctions could range from 5-game suspensions for players to additional forfeitures of games. The team forfeited a 3-game weekend series to Augusta State.

“I will meet with the team on Monday afternoon and there will be some further punishment,” Griffin said. “I haven’t come to a decision yet, but there is a possibility of more forfeits of games.”

Disciplinary action will also likely be taken against longtime baseball coach Chico Lombardo, who recently won his 300th game at the school and guided the Saints to the 2005 regular-season conference championship.

“We feel very strongly that coaches are responsible for the actions of their players both on and off the field,” Griffin said.

The alleged hazing incident came to light Friday morning when various news agencies, including The Gaffney Ledger, received an e-mail about photos posted on a Web site.

According to the e-mail, Limestone freshman baseball players were “welcomed” to the team with a night of full scale hazing. The e-mail said the pictures showed players wearing boxers or jock straps being doused with chocolate and molasses and then coated with flour.

The photos also showed that some of the players had received special haircuts, the e-mail said.

The e-mail concluded with the statement: “Surely Limestone College does not tolerate hazing, and will take action.”

Griffin said the hazing ritual occurred off campus and with the apparent consent of the players.

“Supposedly the initiation of the freshmen was all voluntary,” he said. “But it still falls under my definition of hazing.”

According to the Limestone College policy manual, hazing is any “conduct or methods of initiation into any student organization, whether public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endanger the physical or mental health of any student or other person.”