Excerpt from Youth Radio
By Charlie Foster
An assistant secretary of the Navy upheld the forced retirement of a senior chief accused of hazing junior sailors in a canine unit based in Bahrain.
The decision comes four years after a Navy investigation in which sailors claimed Michael Toussaint, a chief petty officer at the time, had acted as ringleader for a culture of abuse within the kennel between 2005 and 2006. Last February, Toussaint denied much of his alleged misconduct before a retirement review board that was convened months after he was censured by the Secretary of the Navy.
“Ultimately, MACS Toussaint’s conduct as the Leading Chief Petty Officer assigned to the Military Working Dog Division, Naval Security Forces, Bahrain, did not meet the standards expected of senior enlisted leadership in our Navy,” said Juan Garcia, assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs.
Garcia followed the paygrade recommendation of the retirement board, which said Toussaint should receive an honorable discharge and a pension at his current rank. The board members cited insufficient evidence uncovered in the Navy’s hazing investigation and a 2009 tour of duty in Afghanistan during which he saved the life of a marine.
“[W]hen looking at his career in its entirety,” said Garcia, “I have determined that his conduct did not rise to a level sufficient to warrant retirement in a paygrade less than E-8.”
News 3 had to push Texas A&M to give in-depth details through an open records request.
It’s information that may have never been known to the public had the local media not done some digging.
Greek communities at A&M and across the country are known for having a good time but sometimes those good times can get quickly out of hand.
In November five allegations of hazing were reported in a short period of time, forcing a week-long time out for the entire Texas A&M Greek Community and required an all-Greek Town Hall Meeting at Rudder Auditorium.
To find out why Greek Life took such an unprecedented step, News 3 uncovered reports of more than a handful of concerning events, some of which could have been potentially life threatening.
It’s information Texas A&M wouldn’t have given News 3 had it not been for open records laws.
After sifting through hundreds of pages of documents and doing research News 3 discovered some of the organizations being investigated.
Two of the major incidents involved the same fraternity. While A&M won’t release which fraternity was involved, we’ve discovered it was a Kappa Alpha Fraternity member who was eventually banned from the fraternity after separate incidents involving pledge members.
While a scene from the 1970’s comedy classic “Animal House” was humorous what happened at the K.A. house was anything but funny.
On October 5 a K.A. fraternity member brought his pet goat to the fraternity house and then shot it in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun in front of a group of pledges.
Then less than two weeks later the same fraternity member created a concoction of Dr Pepper, jalapenos and kitchen spices which was passed around to new members who were forced to drink it. Four of them would become sick.
“In terms of that situation, they handled their individual membership issues internally. I believe that we were notified that the individual was ultimately released from membership, but I do not know all the internal workings of that situation,” said Ann Goodman, Texas A&M Greek Life Director.
Kappa Alpha student leaders declined to go on camera but released a statement from their national office which said,
“Kappa Alpha Order adopted a prohibition against hazing almost 100 years ago. No form of hazing is tolerated and each allegation is investigated.. after interviewing new members and chapter members, it was concluded that these were isolated incidents perpetuated by an individual.”
In fact Kappa Alpha has a previous history of hazing at A&M. In 1997 member Jonathan Culpepper was indicted for misdemeanor hazing after he gave sophomore pledge John Warren a super wedgie.
Warren was unable to walk after the incident and days later went to the hospital to undergo surgery where doctors had to remove one of his testicles.
Ann Goodman is the Greek Life Director at A&M and also investigated that incident.
“The chapter was suspended by their national headquarters. The university did also suspend their recognition,” Goodman said.
The fraternity was suspended for two years, Culpepper got community service and eventually a clean record.
Sigma Chi was also under investigation this fall following among other things a member swinging a baseball bat and hitting a table to intimidate the pledges.
Bradley Shipp is the Sigma Chi Chapter Advisor for Texas A&M and spoke with News 3 about the allegations.
“I can tell you as soon as the charges came up those members were suspended from all fraternity activities,” Bradley Shipp said.
But after an investigation found no wrongdoings, they were allowed back in.
Of all the documents Texas A&M gave us, no fraternities were mentioned, no names were ever printed, even when wrongdoings were determined to have taken place.
Texas A&M cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA for protecting the student’s identities.
“I don’t know if you want to call it necessarily history… but the university has been known in the past to use FERPA as a mechanism to withhold information,” Lane Thibodeaux, a local attorney.
Thibodeaux questions why information on the identities of the fraternities themselves was withheld.
So News 3 contacted the U.S. Department of Education for more information on the FERPA provision and were told Texas A&M can withhold the organization names if they feel it will compromise student’s identities.
“Ultimately then it goes back to the Office of General Council and they make those determinations as it relates to their interpretation of FERPA. So I wouldn’t be the best person to ask,” said Ann Goodman.
Since the moratorium, Texas A&M said they have received no reports of any major incidents.
News 3 doesn’t want to paint the picture that all fraternities were involved in these incidents.
That was not the case.
Ann Goodman with Greek Life informed News 3 that three of the fraternities faced disciplinary action following the University’s investigation but won’t say to what extent.
At this time no fraternities have been suspended.
Stand Up, Geneseo’s positive student conduct initiative, introduced its new website on Monday. The site provides students with information and support regarding campus issues related to student welfare.
The content featured on the site was developed by a steering committee of campus administrators and students and addresses sexual assault awareness, harassment prevention, hazing prevention, mental health and suicide prevention, bias-related incidents and alcohol and drug use. Students can use the site to submit reports of misconduct to University Police and to Tamara Kenney, assistant dean of students for student conduct. Additionally, students can submit reports of positive encounters if they witness a student standing up for someone else.
Kenney and Lauren Taraska, coordinator of student organizations and campus activities, co-chaired the steering committee for the website. They developed the idea in the summer of 2010 during the Hazing Institute – a program held at Geneseo that teaches interdisciplinary participants how to handle hazing on college campuses.
Excerpt from the Diamondback
The university recently suspended two multicultural fraternities — Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Beta Rho — for allegedly hazing their members, and Greek life officials are now ramping up efforts to educate the community on the ramifications of such incidents.
The Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life suspended Kappa Alpha Psi indefinitely on Feb. 12, pending the results of a joint investigation with the Office of Student Conduct. In addition, this university’s chapter of Sigma Beta Rho was closed by its national organization Jan. 20 and is banned from the university for four years or until the last active member graduates, DFSL Director Matt Supple said.
Seven University of Maryland sorority sisters were charged with assaulting and hazing a pledge during initiation, police said.
The student alleged she was assaulted by current or former members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority off campus at least three times in October, charging documents stated.
The alleged assaults included pushing her into a wall and repeatedly striking her with an oak paddle, the documents stated. The student’s arms and chest were severely bruised, College Park police said.
Most of the charged sorority sisters, whose ages range from 22 to 26, were to appear in court Thursday, The Washington Post reported.
The university indefinitely suspended the sorority in November for “failure to comply with ‘membership intake’ guidelines,” Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life Director Matt Supple said in a statement.