• Hazing Deaths
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Hank Nuwer: selected media coverage
  • World Hazing Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Texas Standard radio: A look at the sodomy case involving firefighters

April 9, 2015 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

Here is the link to the audio story

 

When a hazing incident makes the news, we usually think of college campuses – a fraternity rush gone wrong, or an initiation ritual for a sport team. But not always. That was the case this week in Texas.

Five members of the Ellis County Volunteer Fire Department have been charged with aggravated sexual assault. The incident allegedly occurred back in January as part of a hazing ritual for new recruits.

 

This story includes some explicit details about a disturbing incident.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the men held a male recruit down and sexually assaulted him with a broomstick, and then a sausage. Another person, who has also been arrested, filmed the incident. The video captured the cheers and laughter of fellow firefighters.

“This is all about loyalty and trust – but it’s more than that,” says Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College and member of HazingPrevention.org. “Being a fireman is a high-status job … there’s status and power there, and this was definitely a power play.”

“The problem with this kind of hazing,” Nuwer says, “is that, with the victim, he becomes a pariah if he says something. And it isn’t about bonding in this case – it’s really a form of terrible bullying, And it must have been really shaming to have a woman in the room photographing while this ordeal was taking place.”

Nuwer says hazing laws need to be reconsidered nationwide.

“This same thing happened in a different context in South Carolina, and the law did not apply to high school students. In a case near Hilton Head, there was a student who was raped, sodomized, and the sheriff would not press charges because the law did not cover it.”

 

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Sons of the Dawn

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths

… Read More

Family alleges Adam Oakes dies from hazing at VCU: ABC

Here is the LInk Virginia Commonwealth University said it shut down Delta Chi fraternity and the police are investigating after a freshman student was found dead this weekend. Adam Oakes, 19, was found dead at an off-campus residence early Saturday morning by authorities, the university and the Richmond Police Department said in statements. The medical examiner’s […]

Hazing of pledge with a gun shuts down Kappa Sigma: ABC News

A New Mexico State University student has been accused of shooting a classmate in an alleged hazing incident that resulted in his fraternity’s suspension. Miguel Altamirano was charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly shot Jonathan Sillas in the leg as he pledged the Kappa Sigma fraternity. Recent Stories from […]

Tallahassee police label December FSU fraternity death an accident, not hazing. Deaths involve FSU SAE and Sig Ep.

Here is the story link The death of a popular Florida State University student found unresponsive inside the Sigma Phi Epsilon house in December has been determined accidental, according to an autopsy released late Tuesday. The District Two Medical Examiner’s Office said the death of William Eppes Proctor, 22, was due to “right epidural hematoma due to […]

Pullman Police Chief Jenkins drops the ball in Big-Little death.

The police chief missed the deadline to post hazing charges. Shame on Pullman Police and the Prosecutor for letting the one-year statute of limitations expire in the “Big-Little” death of Sam Martinez, a travesty, at Washington State’s Alpha Tau Omega house. “We had our eyes on a potential more serious offense, that was manslaughter, and […]

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress