Author: Hank Nuwer

Hazing deemed cowardly
Anti-hazing advocate speaks to Greeks during National Hazing Prevention Week

Mike Brambley

The Daily Evergreen

Hazing erodes respect and takes away what the Greek community stands for, an anti-hazing advocate told fraternity and sorority members Wednesday in Beasley Coliseum.

Dave Westol spoke to students about eliminating hazing in the Greek community and on the WSU campus. The speech, “Hazing on Trial,” was a feature of National Hazing Prevention Week, a program aimed at eliminating hazing on college campuses.

“This is a process that involves cruelty and ridicule and, yes, taking away our dignity,” he said. “This is all about hazing.” He told stories of hazing gone wrong from his experiences in the Greek community at Michigan State University and work with national fraternity and sorority events.

“Hazing is the dark side of our moon,” Westol said. “It runs counter to everything we believe in.” Westol attacked the arrogance of Greek community members who have participated in hazing, using stories of deaths caused by hazing and punishments for those who have broken anti-hazing policies. “You don’t breathe the same air as me thinking hazing has anything to do with a tighter, closer or in any way better fraternity or sorority,” Westol said.

Hazing can cause legal troubles for the Greek community and can result in a chapter being shut down, he said.

Members of the Greek community who haze have less confidence and are less self-actualized, Westol said. “If one young woman, or one young man, demonstrates the courage, stands up, speaks out, confronts, challenges, makes a commitment to change, then I haven’t wasted your time this afternoon,” he said.

Westol has a long history of active involvement with the Greek community, taking on many advising and executive positions on the national level. He is also the owner and CEO of Limberlost Consulting.

National Hazing Prevention Week is a weeklong series of events sponsored by the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils to educate students about the problem of hazing.

“Live up to your standards,” said Jen Patterson, Panhellenic vice president of programming and development and a senior human nutrition major. “Live up to your policy. You say you are not going to haze, so don’t do it. There are other positive ways to build membership in the organization.” WSU has a zero-tolerance policy on hazing for the Greek community and all other student organizations.

“Without (the policy), I don’t think the Greek system would be as valuable as an experience as it is now,” said Matt Dahlstrom, freshman political science major and a Kappa Sigma member.

3 students deny revised charges
Attorneys in Wilson want judgeto hold proceedings behind closed doors
By Thomas J. Prohaska – NEWS NIAGARA BUREAU
Updated: 09/10/08 4:06 PM

WILSON — As three former Wilson High School varsity baseball players pleaded not guilty to revised charges in a hazing case Tuesday, their attorneys called for all future proceedings in the case to be held behind closed doors.

Town Justice George R. Berger said he’ll think about it before the three defendants, an 18-year-old and two 16-year-olds, return to court Nov. 18 on charges of forcible touching and hazing, stemming from an incident April 17 on a team bus, in which three junior varsity players allegedly had cell phones and fingers shoved into their pants.

However, Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco said he’d probably oppose the defense request for secrecy.

“I think it’s a little late in the game, especially given the type of statements the [defense] attorneys have been making, that what happens in the courtroom should be sheltered from public scrutiny,” Zucco said.

He also said the defendants must plead guilty as charged or go to trial. “There won’t be any offers of reductions or plea bargains,” Zucco said.

Mark Guglielmi, the attorney for the 18-year-old boy, noted that since the new charges are misdemeanors or lower, a conviction would result in automatic youthful offender status, meaning it wouldn’t count on their records. He said he wants “future proceedings in private, pursuant to the youthful offender statute.”

“I don’t think it’s good for the town to have it open,” said Kevin P. Shelby, attorney for one of the 16-year-olds.

The three boys originally were charged with felony counts of aggravated third-degree sexual abuse. Those were formally dismissed Tuesday and replaced with new charges of forcible touching, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. Also added were charges of first-and second-degree hazing, the former a misdemeanor and the latter a violation, which under New York law is not considered a crime.

“Frankly, the hazing should have been charged in the first place. That was an oversight, in my opinion,” District Attorney Michael J. Violante said.

P. Andrew Vona, attorney for the second 16-year-old, derided the hazing charges. “The misdemeanor hazing requires them to prove an injury, which they’re going to have a tough time with,” he predicted.

State law says first-degree hazing occurs when a perpetrator intentionally or recklessly causes a physical injury “in the course of another person’s initiation into or affiliation with any organization.”

Second-degree hazing is similar, except that the conduct need only cause “a substantial risk of physical injury.”

The defense said the felony charges were dropped because the prosecution would have had to prove that the assailants used foreign objects to penetrate the backside of the three alleged victims, and medical evidence was lacking.

Forcible touching “would more accurately reflect what occurred on that bus,” Zucco said.

The law defines it as using force to touch “the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing [that] person, or for the purpose of gratifying the [perpetrator’s] sexual desire.”

Zucco said, “This is not in any way a reflection that less serious conduct occurred. . . . It’s not like new facts were brought to our attention.”

The charges are slightly different for each defendant, which Zucco said reflected the number of alleged victims each interacted with. The 18-year-old faces three counts each of forcible touching and first-and second- degree hazing, plus a count of endangering the welfare of a child left over from the original allegations.

Both 16-year-olds face a single touching count, but one of them has two counts of each hazing charge, and the other only one count of each hazing charge.

Shelby and Vona sought to have orders of protection altered so the 16-year-olds can return to school if their suspensions, in effect since the incident, are lifted following a superintendent’s hearing. Zucco opposed that, and Berger said he’d wait until the school actually acts, if it does.

The team coaches who were on the bus, charged with child endangerment, are due to return to court Sept. 25.

Football Coach Suspended in Hazing Incident

Karen Zatkulak of WTVC (Chattanooga, TN)

The head football caoch at Bledsoe County High School has been suspended for seven days. School Superintendent Philip Kiper tells Newschannel9.com that Coach Hubert Roberson will be punished as a result of a hazing incident among the players last Wednesday.

Kiper says they will also be suspending some students on Thursday. He says there was neglect on the part of the coach to leave the players alone during an athletic period during school hours. Freshmen players said they were forced by the seniors to beat each other up with bats and bags.

So far no criminal charges have been filed, but Newschannel 9 did speak with Sheriff Jim Morris at the school today who says he is investigating.

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