Author: Hank Nuwer

Here is the Link

Excerpt:

The defendants — Benjamin McNamee, 24; Aaron Golson, 22; and Darryl Cearnel, 28; are being tried together and each face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Known as “Crossing Bus C,” the ritual required band members to make their way through a pounding gauntlet of fists, drumsticks and mallets from the front of the bus to the back. Two other band members — Lissette Sanchez and Keon Hollis — went through the bus before Champion, and survived.

A total of 15 former band members were charged with manslaughter. One, Jessie Baskin, served one year in county jail. Others plea bargained for probation and community service. The band itself was suspended for more than a year while officials tried to clean up the program.

Dante Martin, now 27 and serving a six-year term for felony hazing and manslaughter, is the only former band member to receive prison time the death of Champion.

Martin’s attorneys told his jurors that there was no actual hazing, likening the ritual to a “competition” in which Champion and the others voluntarily took part.

But state attorney Jeff Ashton said testimony made it clear that band members were looking for a measure of respect and acceptance by “crossing Bus C,” and that their willing participation was “not a defense” for those who were charged.

This is a truly comprehensive law journal article on hazing. I learned several things I did not know. Kudos.

Excerpt:

In order to sensibly discuss the problem of collegiate hazing, one should first attempt to quantify the problem. The available data suggests that collegiate hazing is extremely common—approximately half of all college students report experiencing behavior that may be considered hazing ¹² —but perceptions of the number of hazing deaths are greatly inflated. Since 1970, on average, three hazing deaths occur each year in the United States. ¹³

As with other types of criminal activity, ¹⁴ there are two approaches to measuring incidents of collegiate hazing: compiling reports of hazing incidents and surveying individuals about their experiences with hazing. Both approaches must contend with two primary problems: the lack of a generally accepted definition of hazing ¹⁵ and the fact that most hazing is shrouded in secrecy. ¹⁶

1. Compiled Hazing Reports

There is no governmental or private organization that compiles statistics of hazing incidents, injuries, and deaths. ¹⁷ Instead, most of the literature on hazing relies on the work of journalism professor and anti-hazing activist Hank Nuwer, ¹⁸ who has compiled reports of collegiate deaths due to hazing since 1990. ¹⁹

Despite popular perception to the contrary, there is little evidence of a significant increase in hazing deaths in recent decades. Nuwer reports that from 1838 to 1969 there were thirty-nine collegiate hazing deaths. ²⁰ There were twenty-six deaths in the 1970s, twenty-nine in the 1980s, twenty-eight in the 1990s, and thirty-five in the 2000s. ²¹ To put deaths due to hazing in context, from 2005 to 2012 there were on average 19.25 murders each year at American colleges and universities. ²²

Excerpt:

Excerpt from New York Post

The former president of a suspended Cornell fraternity where a member died during a hazing ritual should not have to pay for the sins of his brothers, he claims in a new lawsuit.

Eric Barnum, onetime head of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and his parents are suing the Greek organization’s insurance company to cover costs for a lawsuit by the dead member’s family.

In the new Manhattan lawsuit, Barnum says the hazing exclusion by insurer Lloyd’s doesn’t apply to him because he didn’t participate in the binge-drinking ritual that resulted in Brooklyn resident George Desdunes’ 2011 death.

Here is a Washington Post excerpt

In the report, BGPD officials obtained a search warrant for 1303 Chestnut Street, the address of where the hazing was reported to occur. Two beer kegs, two marijuana grinders, two marijuana pipes, one pill bottle with marijuana stems and five picture boards full of various photographs were among the items seized during the search.

According to the report, Huda Melky, director and Title IX Coordinator, met with BGPD in late February to view the picture boards. The picture boards were a photo collage of what appeared to be various students that were highly intoxicated to the point of vomiting and passing out. Some of the photographs depicted intoxicated individuals that were nude or partially nude placing their buttocks on other individuals. The photographs also showed females passed out in various positions, one of which a female is passed out in the bathroom with her underwear pulled down.

The school’s Title IX office then issued its own report on the incident, again per the Herald:

In documents obtained by the Herald, the summary judgment completed by Title IX coordinator Huda Melky and Title IX deputy Joshua Hayes said individual members of the team were pressured to drink underage, subjected to calisthenics … and endured mental abuse brought around by “taping and replaying embarrassing or compromising activity in order to subject the individual to ridicule.”

“The resulting hostile environment was created not only at ‘the party house’, but within the team itself,” the ruling said. “This culture of unruly conduct also led to an environment conducive of individuals being incapacitated due to excessive consumption of alcohol, underage drinking, and at least a high probability that alcohol was offered to and accepted by high school recruits.”

According to the Title IX report, Coach Bruce Marchionda had been aware of the incidents since spring 2012, “based on an email he received from a former swimmer,” the Herald writes.

On Tuesday, the school announced that the positions of Marchionda, associate head coach Brian Thomas and head diving coach Chelsea Ale will be eliminated June 30.