U.S. Elementary and High School Hazing Deaths – Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

U.S. Elementary and High School Hazing Deaths

These 19 deaths are ALSO included in U.S. Hazing Deaths 1838-2025 on my site. This page is only for classification purposes and to assist hazing researchers and educators. -Hank Nuwer

1838

Franklin Seminary (Kentucky)

Class Hazing

John Butler Groves died in a hazing incident, according to a family history. The school’s records were destroyed in an unrelated fire. This is the information I was able to come up with using public grave and ancestry searches–Moderator Hank Nuwer.

A John B. Groves is listed as born October 31. 1819 in Simpson County, Kentucky. His death date is listed as August 7, 1838 in Franklin, Kentucky, Simpson County. He is listed as being buried in Groves Cemetery (likely a plot on family land).

The information was first reported in Hank Nuwer’s “Broken Pledges” (Longstreet Press, 1990). From a letter from a Groves descendent to Eileen Stevens, Committee to Halt Useless College Killings, that she let me read in 1989. The female letter writer (name withheld) wrote that John’s grieving family never sent another child to a similar school.

Using newspaper sources, I found a possible family member in Michael Groves who was born in the 1790s and died around or in December 1885 (The Big Sandy News; Louisa, KY, December 31, 1885). I do not know if they were related. Simpson County itself was carved out of other counties. The town of Franklin was located on a railroad line (making it appealing for parents to send children to such a seminary during the nineteenth century). Hazing at male and even female seminaries was common and even celebrated in printed school “customs books” that celebrated “traditions.”

Link to Franklin, Simpson County, Kentucky (in 1874 listing for one male seminary, one female seminary, six churches of various denominations). I found a seminary mentioned in the Laws of Kentucky for sale of the seminary land and building. HN

2) 1898

Decatur High School, Illinois

High School Physical Hazing

According to Wikipedia and the Logansport Pharos-Tribune, freshman David C. Jones was one of several boys thrown over a fence. A battle royal ensued. Jones died a few days later of a spinal injury.

3) 1899

Lawrenceville, New Jersey High School

Hazing (a form of physical hazing known locally as piling)

Martin V. Bergen, son of Councilman Peter V. Bergen, of this place, died from injuries received at a hazing at Lawrenceville. He died of inflammation of the bowels. Young Bergen was twelve years old and a freshman at Lawrenceville. He was being put through the initiation when one of the hazers accidentally fell upon him. [Source: Columbus Daily Enquirer, November 23, 1899]; Harrisburg Telegraph, November 23, 1899]. View a clipping here

4) 1900

Charleston, S. C

Porter Military Academy (South Carolina)

Accident during hazing.

No punishment despite death. “Charleston, S. C, Nov. 5. Thomas Finley Brown, 12, Is dead from injuries received while being hazed at tho Porter military academy last Monday. Brown was now at the academy and the older boys, following their former custom, dropped him Into a cemented swimming basin 12 feet deep. The basin was dry at the time and tho lad received internal injuries from the fall. Before he died he did not give the names of the cadets who had mistreated him, and It Is said no action will be taken In the matter. Source: Evening Bulletin, Maysville, Kentucky”

[Above: The Blaine [Kansas] News, November 9, 1900

5) 1902

Parsons, Kansas

High School Club Initiation

Member Lee Watson was electrocuted by a live wire he was about to shock a new member with. The Buffalo (NY) Enquirer, March 26, 1902.]

6) 1903

Bluffton High School (Indiana)

Secret Society

Ten young men went on trial following the death of “L of S.S.B” recruit Ralph McBride. While McBride was hazed, his death of sepsis occurred five months later. A criminal trial failed to show the death definitely was linked to McBride’s hazing, according to the Indianapolis Journal of December 27, 1903.

7) 1903

Barton, Vermont

Bullying and Torture

Three preteen males decided to pick on 9 year-old Ralph Canning by having him perform mock hazing acts such as sitting and standing on heated rocks. They then physically attacked and tortured him. Canning died of his injuries. The three were Alva Day, 11; Raymond Adams, 10; Raymond Waterman, 9. The boys told police they were trying to haze

8) 1904

Rawson School (Findlay, Ohio)

Alleged Schoolboy hazing

I have confirmed that Freddie Fillwock died. A newspaper account reported that he suffered multiple injuries as a result of striking his head and subsequent piling on during an initiation. –Moderator. See online The Leavenworth Times, “Hazing Results in Death,” April 6, 1904. Headstone link.

9) 1905

Hilliard High School (Columbus, Ohio)

Class Hazing

The New York Times reported that representatives of the family of Cecil F. Leat sued for $10,000 damages after he was beaten to death in a hazing on November 9, 1905. NYT Jan. 30, 1906. One of the hazers was named as Carlton Sherwood.

10) 1906

Culver Military Academy (Indiana)

Disputed death, hazing or illness–Undetermined

A father claimed death of his son Edward Beery was caused by hazing. Although 13 members of the class were expelled, the school said it would never cover up and that the direct cause of death was tonsillitis.

11) 1909

White School (West Point, Indiana)

Hazing and retaliation (death from illness perhaps connected with abuse)

After some bullies and hazers were reported, or thought to have been reported by Charles Stinson to a teacher who whipped them, the 11-year-old was hung upside down and left a long time to dangle. He died after his attackers came back. according to the Plymouth (IN) Tribune, March 25, 1909. The same article was reprinted in many USA newspapers.

What is known: Stinson’s cause of death on his death certificate is listed as “spinal meningitis.”

1900 Census records list then two-year-old Charles as the son of William M. Stinson and Effie Stinson.

12) 1923

New Salem, Indiana

Bullying/hazing

Vernon A. Walker, 16, took his own life by shooting himself.

13) 1924

Hartford City, Indiana

High School Hazing

Death of a brother intervening in a hazing

Raymond Morris, 18 (born Feb. 26, 1906), tried to intervene when a mob of hazers picked on his little brother, Benjamin, 14. Hazer William Duff, 17, accepted Raymond’s offer to fight in Benjamin’s place. “Bennie” feared the annual first-year high school haircut.

“Look put, I’m going to paste you a good one,” Raymond said, according to witnesses.

The fight lasted and was moved to a second remoter location than the school’s property. After taking many blows, Morris fell unconscious and was driven around by frightened boys in an automobile before being taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The coroner ruled Raymond died from a cerebral hemorrhage through accidental means on September 2, 1924, according to the death certificate. Duff was given a “not guilty” jury verdict in 1925. Duff had health problems later in life and died of heart failure at age 59.

William Duff served for a time as president of the Hartford City Odd Fellows (Moderator Hank Nuwer was given a tour of the old headquarters while a freelance columnist for the Muncie Star-Press).

Bernard and wife Sarah Achor Duff named their only son “Raymond” after the brother who died while protecting him.

Several Indiana papers wrote editorials condemning hazing after the death.

14) 1929

Flint, Michigan

Boyhood hazing (likely bullying in today’s language)

Blood poisoning due to injury Merrill A. Putnam, 8, died after older boys repeatedly slammed him to the ground in a prank they called the “Royal Bumps.”

15) 1936 Death (Injury incurred in 1934)

Miami-Dade High School

Iota Phi fraternity Physical hazing

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (February 25, 1936), sophomore Taylor Lewis succumbed of injuries incurred two years earlier in a hazing initiation. The school ordered an end to all fraternities and sororities.

16) 1937

Unspecified Modesto high school

Hazing (kidnapping or ride)

A car carrying two kidnapped high school pledges hit a rut and overturned. Robert James, 15, died, and Ted Hanky, 15, was injured. Source: Bakersfield Californian, January 16, 1937.

17) 1941

Highmore High School (S. Dakota)

Athletic hazing, Lettermen’s Club:

Hazing by electrocution

18) 1936

Death (Injury incurred in 1934)

Miami-Dade High School

Iota Phi fraternity Physical hazing (disputed paddling infection)

According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (February 25, 1936), sophomore (Marshall) Taylor Lewis succumbed of injuries incurred two years earlier in a hazing initiation. The school ordered an end to all fraternities and sororities. (Another theory stated that his injury occurred playing basketball).

Father	Dr Taylor Lewis
Mother	Emma Lula Rasor
Birth	19 Apr 1919 Americus, Sumter, Georgia, USA
Death	24 Feb 1936 Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA
Residence	1930 Miami, Miami-Dade, Florida, USA

19) 1937

Unspecified high school

Hazing (kidnapping or ride) Updated and corrected Sept. 24, 2024

A car carrying two kidnapped high school pledges hit a rut and overturned. Robert Lincoln James, 15, died, and Ted Hanke, 15, was injured on June 14, 1937 in Stanislaus, California. Source: Bakersfield Californian, January 16, 1937. The hazer who allegedly took them for a ride was Warren Dale Boyd, 16. Four other boys were in the vehicle. James suffered a broken neck when thrown from the car into a bean field.

Media correction: Hanky should be Hanke:

1941

Highmore High School (S. D.)

Athletic hazing, Lettermen’s Club:

Hazing by electrocution (DeGooyer bottom left)

Gerald De Gooyer, 20, a multi-sport athlete was killed by an initiation requiring him to sustain an electric shock.

1941

Berkeley High School

Eunoia Club

Auto crash as upperclassmen chased newcomers

About 30 members were involved in a hazing of a high school club that seems to have all or most members situated

in California high schools. One carload of boys flipped and went off an embankment. James Ristenpart died. Three were injured.

1943

High school hazing (Wisconsin)

Appleton (WI) High School

Death from nephritis (but disputed by D.A.) Updated September 16, 1924

Wayne Bernard (Bud) Rogers, hazed by at least seven older students, died after a six-day illness. His father said the boy’s hair had been cut and oil of wintergreen rubbed on his son’s body.

He succumbed after his parents asserted the hazers had taken “indecent liberties” with him. The attending physician ruled he died of nephritis caused by a blow but District Attorney Elmer R. Honkamp dismissed any connection between Rogers’s death.

The father wanted the hazers charged with juvenile delinquency.

1959

Yakima High School (Washington State); Moxee School District

Moxeee Letterman’s Club

Paddling and dunking of new members wearing burlap sacks; under supervision of a coach

Henry Allen Sherwood, Jr., the unlucky one of 16 initiates, drowned wearing a burlap sack after submitting to a paddling. Head football coach Donald L. (Don) Smith was present and overseeing the paddling and subsequent tragedy. School officials took no swift action in the week following the death, and Smith and up to 40 players were questioned by a prosecutor. As would be commonplace over time, the death was ruled accidental. The parents sued, lost, and won an appeal charging the Moxee school district with negligence that sent the case to trial. News Clipping here.

Important: See judgments by Washington State Supreme Court re school responsibility.

1955

New Philadelphia, Ohio

Boy Scouts of America Auto accident during blindfolded initiation march

The Ashbury (N.J. Park Press reported that two of ten boys were killed on a darkened road as they marched with older Explorers to celebrate their initiation as First-Class Scouts. The dead were identified as Michael Andreas and Charles Fawcett. A third youth was injured. The driver was Allen Rupp.

1957

A high school educator who participated in a “harmless” supervised initiation intended to frighten first-year students for laughs died accidentally while pretending to hang. The victim in the tragic, unfortunate death was W.H. Sallee of Utica High School (Kansas). Source: many, including Warren Times Mirror (Pa.), Sept. 18, 1957.

1959

Yakima High School (Washington State); Moxee School District

Moxeee Letterman’s Club

Paddling and dunking of new members wearing burlap sacks; under supervision of a coach

Important: See judgments by Washington State Supreme Court re school responsibility.

Henry Sherwood, Jr.1958 Moxee HS football. Coach Smith is at top

1962

Allegheny High School

Football Hazing, Suicide

Richard Metz, 17, was being attacked by two older football players in a hazing. They tried cutting off his ducktail style hair. Metz shot one of the young men, injuring him with a .22 pistol. Afraid of being sent to a correctional institution, Metz turned the weapon on himself and died in September of 1962.

1963

Charleston High School (West Virginia)

Band Hazing Alleged beating death

Long before the more famous deadly hazing of Robert Champion in a Florida A & M band hazing, high school band members accused of administering a fatal “pink belly” beating to 15-year-old newcomer Michael Murphy in a hazing were let go by a court and acquitted, according to the Spokane Daily Chronicle (October 18, 1963).

1962

Allegheny High School

Football Hazing, Suicide

1963

Charleston High School (West Virginia)

Band Hazing Alleged beating death

1966

Roman Catholic High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Athletic hazing: Drowning

Lamonte R. Jenkins died of drowning after being tossed into water near West Chester, according to New York Times and the Hazleton Standard-Speaker.

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