Author: Hank Nuwer

Here is the link. Good stuff here. Thanks to all for hard work.

Go right to the study on web: other link

Note from researchers:

We are writing to share the exciting news that the The National Agenda for Hazing Prevention is being released today.  The Agenda is a product of collaboration emerging from the 2009 National Hazing Symposium co-sponsored with HazingPrevention.org and is intended to serve as a guiding framework and national call to action (to sustain current and ignite new hazing prevention efforts).

• Further catalyze dialogue and collaboration related to hazing prevention.
• Fuel more widespread public recognition of hazing as a health and safety risk to students.
• Emphasize the importance of grounding prevention efforts in research and evaluating prevention strategies for their effectiveness.

--
Elizabeth J. Allan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Higher Education
The University of Maine
Orono, ME 04469
elizabeth.allan@umit.maine.edu
207-581-3166

Here is the link

Excerpt from the Daily Athenaaeum

The West Virginia University Police Department is investigating an alleged hazing incident between 10 and 15 Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity members that occurred early Monday morning, said Police Chief Bob Roberts.

Police officers entered the fraternity house, located at 672 North High St., between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. after hearing music and seeing an open door. There they found pledges blindfolded with food poured on them, Roberts said.

One person was allegedly slapping those blindfolded in the face. There was a warrant out for his arrest, and police detained him Monday afternoon. He has since been released on bail, Roberts said.

There were six to seven new members and approximately four active members, said Ron Justice, WVU’s director of Student Organizations Services. He said there is no indication alcohol was involved, and no one was injured.

WVU put the fraternity on moratorium, which bans it from any activities.

“We patrol the fraternities about the same way we do the residence halls,” Roberts said. “It kind of surprises me that this was going on there because they know we do.”

Hazing is, as defined by the West Virginia State Code, “to cause any action which recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of another person or persons or causes another person or persons to destroy or remove public or private property for the purpose of initiation or admission into any organization … operating under the sanction of or recognized as an organization by an institution of higher education.”

Blasts Scott Laskowski agreement

Excerpt

Sources have told Fox59 the 15-year-old embellished what happened to him and that there was no anal penetration during the incident despite the fact that a DCS report substantiates his claims. To those accusations, the victim had this to say:

“I’m sure I would not make something like this up. I would not want to be here in this situation if I was making something like this up. This is a very very serious situation.”

The victim says some kids at his new school try to make light of the attacks he endured by the Carmel basketball seniors.

“People joke about it. I’m very distolerant to that in fact I take it personal when kids do that.”

The victim also had a message to other students:

“Speak up. There will always be something, somebody who’s listening. Whether you tell your parents, or you tell the teacher it starts right there and hopefully they listen.”

The victim’s mother also spoke out about her outrage over the plea deal agreed to by Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp involving one of the accused, Scott Laskowski. She and her husband say Leerkamp has never included them properly in any discussions of the plea or process in the case. Her husband handed her a paper which was a protective order for her son that was given to them at the hearing resulting from the plea deal which she says they were also never consulted on. The misdemeanor count involving her son’s case was dropped as part of the plea yet she says Leerkamp never notified them.

“At that hearing I couldn’t believe my ears. It just made me want to take this piece of paper and rip it up because all this is is a no contact order. I can protect my son myself. I will protect him from this point to the best of my ability.”

Attorney Robert Turner who represents the family criticized Sonia Leerkamp at length including the following statements:

“She’s formulated an opinion about this and she can’t be objective about what she’s doing. Either that or she’s so closely involved politically in Hamilton County with other people that she cannot be fair and objective and maybe she should have appointed a special prosecutor. Politicians in Hamilton County have done everything to undermine rather than assist this victim from the beginning.”

On the videotape (that’s never been released) that supposedly shows the attack on the Carmel basketball bus ride home from Terre Haute, Fox59 News has learned you can make out the individuals Hoge, Kitzinger, and Laskowski going after the kids in the back of the bus. However, Fox59 has a source that says you cannot see any kind of sexual or anal attack involving pulling pants down on freshman as has been alleged by the 15-year-old victim. Turner denies those claims and says he has been shown portions of the video by Rick Lang, the Hendricks County detective working for the prosecutor on possible new charges in the bus incident.

“I have no reason not to believe that that video has not been manipulated and if in fact the U.S. attorney finds that it is then we’re gonna need more judges in Hamilton County,” said Turner.

Here is the story link

Excerpt:

Hazing probe nets 8 Cortland students
Police seized steroids, other drugs in raid

Updated: Wednesday, 10 Nov 2010, 12:17 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 10 Nov 2010, 12:16 PM EST

* Posted by Nancy Sanders

CORTLAND, NY – Cortland police have charged 8 students with an alleged hazing incident at the Delta Kappa Beta fraternity at SUNY Cortland.

Police report that a 19-year-old man told them he was the victim of hazing last month. They later got a search warrant for the fraternity at 18 Reynolds Avenue in Cortland. Delta Kappa Beta is currently banned and not recognized by the University.