Aside from the boarded up windows, the Chi Tau fraternity at Chico State University looked like any other fraternity house. Two stories, white, with pillars and a balcony.
Yet inside, it was anything but ordinary. Describing the basement, Chico Police detective Greg Keeney said, ‘It’s kind of like the medieval castle dungeon.’ The walls were covered with the phrase: ‘In the basement, no one can hear you scream.’ This dungeon would be the scene of a heinous crime. Two pledges were ordered to do calisthenics in raw sewage. The pledges were forced to drink from a five-gallon jug of water, which was filled over and over. Fans blasted freezing air on their drenched bodies.
Covered in urine and vomit, one of the pledges, Matthew Carrington, collapsed from a seizure. He died the next morning of water intoxication, which caused swelling in his brain and lungs.
Hazing is unacceptable and far too commonplace. According to HazingPrevention.org, there were seven deaths linked to hazing-related activities during the last academic year alone. These alarming statistics make this week, National Hazing Prevention Week, an educational necessity for college students across the country.
Hazing can occur anywhere, not just in Greek life. A 1999 study by Alfred University and the NCAA found that about 80 percent of college athletes had been subjected to some form of hazing. Half were required to participate in drinking contests or alcohol-related initiations and two-thirds were subjected to humiliating hazing rituals.
Alcohol poisoning often occurs in these supposedly harmless drinking games. Chuck Stenzel, one of the martyrs of the anti-hazing movements, was shoved into the trunk of a car during freezing weather with another pledge. He was forced to finish a lethal mix of bourbon, wine and beer before being freed. He died of acute alcohol poisoning a couple hours later.
Proponents and defenders of hazing claim it allows members to bond and ‘puts pledges in their place.’ This is absurd. It is entirely possible for members to bond without putting them through extreme trials and suffering. To treat pledges as lesser humans is a demeaning and a violent cycle that must end.
Hazing can be as extreme as branding, sodomizing or physically hurting members. Verbal and mental abuse can be just as damaging. With the zero tolerance rules in place, the rule should be: If there is any doubt that it can be construed as hazing, don’t do it. However, zero tolerance doesn’t always mean there will be zero hazing.
Washington State University and state law ban hazing of any form, but we are not immune. The Sigma Nu chapter here was suspended for three years for hazing activities.
If you are a witness to hazing, I urge you to step out and protect the victims before real tragedy occurs. Anyone who suffered hazing must speak up, otherwise the cycle of abusive behavior will keep going. It must be clear to every organization that hazing is not acceptable.
Hazing goes against everything that Greek and athletic organizations claim to aspire to be. Be careful with who you become involved, because the innocent white houses of Greek Row or the damp locker rooms of campus can sometimes have sinister secrets hidden beneath their surface.
