2005 News (older summaries)

University of Michigan (2005)

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

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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.

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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.

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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. …

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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 …

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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.›

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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 …

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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 …
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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. …

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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.