Update
 

Tue, Feb. 08, 2005

Citing paddles and hot wax, former pledge files hazing lawsuit

Associated Press


ATLANTA - Saying he was hazed and beaten as a pledge, a former Emory University student has filed a civil lawsuit against a fraternity and several former members.

Raymond McKoy said he was beaten with canes and paddles and tortured with hot wax. He said he was also subjected to humiliation while pledging at Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity in spring 2003.

McKoy suffered brain damage and "emotional injury," prompting him to drop out of school, the lawsuit filed in DeKalb County on Monday states. McKoy was a Woodruff scholar with a full scholarship before pledging, his lawyer, Benjamin Barrett, said.

Fraternity officials could not be reached for comment, but university officials said the fraternity was sanctioned after the hazing was reported.

Update from Emory paper
 

http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/disp.../420bd4187e27b

Ex-student files suit against frat for hazing

By Rachel Zelkowitz
Asst. News Editor
February 11, 2005


A former Emory student filed a civil suit on Monday in response to hazing and abuse he allegedly suffered during his pledge period to the Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. fraternity last March.

Raymond McKoy, a former Woodruff scholar, claimed to have been beaten, caned, scalded with hot wax, treated as a slave and otherwise assaulted and humiliated by fraternity brothers.

Defendants in the suit include the Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. national fraternity, the Nu Delta chapter — Emory’s former KAPsi chapter — and nine individuals allegedly involved in the hazing. The suit asserts that these defendants subjected McKoy to “dangerous hazing” in defiance of the national fraternity regulations, Emory policy and Georgia state law.

Deb Hammacher, associate director of public affairs, said that Emory will not issue an official response to the suit, as the University was not identified among the defendants.

The Kappa Alpha Psi, Inc. fraternity could not be reached for comment on the suit.

In a letter to the Wheel last April, McKoy said he would not sue KAPsi.

In the suit, McKoy charges the defendants on eight separate offenses.

The first accuses the defendants of negligence in both committing the acts of hazing and, in the case of the national fraternity, failing to intervene to stop the hazing and “failing to develop and enforce a standard of conduct reasonably designed to prevent hazing and eliminate underground hazing.”

The second and third counts charge the defendants with committing unlawful hazing and breaching their responsibility for McKoy’s safety.

Additionally, the defendants are accused of breaching their duty to aid or rescue McKoy after he was “exposed to dangerous activities” and breaching the fraternity’s agreement with Emory not to haze pledges.

The fifth count deals with two specific individuals, charging that they “created unreasonably dangerous conditions to exist on their properties which resulted in injuries to Raymond.”

As part of his pledging process, McKoy was taken to alumni’s homes over the course of several nights where he was subjected to physical abuse.

The sixth count charges the individuals with extortion. Benjamin Barrett, McKoy’s lawyer, said that McKoy was forced to call his parents and ask for money on several occasions. The Nu Delta brothers claimed almost $5,000 from McKoy for use by the fraternity, Barrett said.

The last two counts in the suit are “intentional infliction of emotional distress” and “assault and battery.”

“As a direct result of the assault and battery committed by the defendants against him, Raymond suffered terrible pain, personal and emotional injury and medical and other expenses, withdrew from his academic studies, and has suffered, and will in the future suffer, from these and other damages,” the suit charged.

McKoy withdrew from the University at the end of March to undergo treatment for bipolar disorder, which he said was triggered on March 7 by head injuries incurred during the hazing.

McKoy’s lawyers advised him not to comment on the suit, according to McKoy’s mother.

On its Web site, the fraternity declares to have outlawed hazing in 1949.

Barrett said he felt McKoy had a strong case, although the suit itself might last several years.

“It will probably be awhile before everyone gets lawyers and they all get involved in the case,” he said. “And the national frat is going to say we told them not to haze. Everyone has a side to the story.”

The civil suit includes photographs revealing the extent of McKoy’s bodily injuries.

Despite holding such “strong” evidence, Barrett refused to predict the outcome of the suit.

Nor would he offer a conjecture as to how much McKoy would request in damages.

“The real purpose is to make change, to make sure this doesn’t happen to other people,” Barrett said.

Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct Andy Wilson said McKoy’s experience with Kappa Alpha Psi was the first Emory-fraternity hazing offense “in recent memory.”

The Conduct Council began an investigation into the allegations in early April, as previously reported in the Wheel.

Wilson said that after a full investigation of the incident, the University elected to suspend the Nu Delta chapter for at least three years, after which time the chapter may appeal to the Interfraternity Council to resume official recognition by the Interfraternity Council.

“Hazing is a very serious violation, and this is our most serious punishment,” Wilson said. “This situation was unfortunate and sad and is not something we want students to experience as part of our fraternity-sorority systems.”

Wilson declined to comment on the cases of individuals brought before the Conduct Council, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prohibits a school official from releasing confidential information about a student without written consent.

the whole thing about welts and bruises sucks, screw physical hazing, and screw hazing that isn't with purpose that promotes unity and teaches life lessons. silly rabbits, you cant beat brotherhood into someone.

A victim
 

A picture from the hazee's web page

Hazing, no matter the form, is illegal.

I'm not talking about illegal or legal, i'm talking about right and wrong.

The only reason hazing is illegal is because some jacktards don't know the difference between right and wrong and become dangerous with thier pledging. If there weren't people putting others in harms way then hazing wouldnt be illegal, but as it stands the term hazing is associated with paddling, running, push ups, booze, etc

The definition of hazing is, "Actions or situations that recklessly or intentionally endanger the health, safety, or welfare of an individual for initiation, admission into, or affiliation with any university organization." To me, that is wrong. There is nothing right about hazing.

One of the bigger problems is that there isn't a single definition of hazing. There should be.

You could probably make a case for someone walking up behind another person and saying, "Boo!" as hazing.

Until there is a common definition (if ever), we simply have to stop anything that puts US in harms way.

see moe. thats a definition of hazing i can agree with, unfortunatly there are many who would include lineups, dressing in similar clothing, speaking in unison, or even scavanger hunts as hazing, now thats just retarded

All of the activities you mention are demeaning and embarassing, or have the capacity to be. Which of your GLOs principles relate to those activities? Alpha Gamma Delta's Purpose doesn't include any of those activities as ideals for which we strive.

they can also be used as effective tools of teaching people ideals and practical lessons

You can teach peoples ideals and practical lessons without being demeaning toward them. Why aren't you choosing men for your Fraternity who already exemplify your ideals and standards?

Wait now...let's think about this and look at some of these...

"dressing in similar clothing" - What about bid day? Do the girls not wear the same shirts, in general?

"speaking in unison" - Do NMs and actives not sing songs together in unison?

"even scavanger hunts" - I understand that things have happened, but scavenger hunts are FUN! I did them for church youth group when I was little and even when I was pledging Alpha Phi Omega.

It all depends on how you handle the "hazing" activities...

If a whole chapter is doing something together, like bid day shirts, singing, etc, it's not hazing, because it's everybody. It becomes an issue when you single out the new members as different or "lesser" than the initiated members. As I've said numerous times before on this board, if the "harmless" activities hadn't been changed and twisted in activities that were demeaning, embarassing or harmful, then there wouldn't be all these rules. They were, repeatedly, they still are, far too frequently. Zero tolerance and red flag activities will remain as long as any abuses are present.

Here
 

Two "definition of hazing" questions of the past week:

1 - Is required "study hall" for pledges hazing? One natl. sorority poster said it is.

2 - In high school soccer, requiring each freshman (not on varsity) to be a ball boy at a varsity game. Ball boys retrieve the out-of-bounds balls. A soccer mom is calling this hazing.

Re: Here
 

Two more good examples of hazing definitions gone awry. Next, parents forcing kids to do chores will be hazing!

I believe the study halls for New Members is considered hazing by NPC standards, but study halls are not considered hazing at the state level (as far as I know).

In general, state hazing laws are in place to protect people from the extremes, not to limit activities that pledges/aspirants/new members can do.

Here's an off the wall example of a good pledge activity gone wrong. Mandatory study hours are a great thing. They give pledges an opportunity to get together with other pledges (this REALLY helps students who aren't good at study skills get together with students who are in a non-threatening environment). BUT, if organizations are planning study hours FOR the pledges - like during class time or at 3 AM or something - that's unacceptable in my opinion.

Personally, I think all pledges should be required to attend all their classes unless there is a medical or family emergency. I also think that the rules about uniterrupted sleep are very important. If there were ever fewer than six hours of uninterrupted sleep, I would be disgusted with a pledge program.

If the study hall is just for new members, then it is hazing because it seperates pledges from sisters.
Hazing includes anything that seperates sisters from new members.

Again, according to NPC rules, not state laws.

The only difference between new members and initiated members is how much education about the Fraternity they have had. Every new member is as good as every initiated member, they simply don't know as much as fraternity education. You should be choosing new members who fit your organization's ideals and standards. We aren't the military who feel a need to break a spirit and make it conform to who we want them to be. We select members who are living up to our ideals already. We loved these women during recruitment and we need to keep recruiting members for the duration of their membership in Alpha Gamma Delta (which means for life!).

Most AGD chapters require study hours of every sister. Who better to help new members who are struggling scholastically than older members who have had those classes already and understand the expectations?

By integrating new members and initiated members into all activities, you create unity within a chapter. The seniors know the freshman, the sophomores hang with with juniors, etc. It helps reduce the "class" cliques.

The purpose of the new member period is to educate the new members about the inner workings of the organization, orient them to policy and procedure and integrate them into sisterhood. If all members (new and initiated) are doing things together, they learn these things by practice and role modeling.

Just as I will probably never convince some that hazing is wrong under any circumstance, you will never convince me that it is ok under any circumstance. But, I'm never going to stop trying on my end!

Dee

good post ... dee

I believe that the posters in this thread agree that hazing is horrible. We're simply discussing what hazing actually is.

What constitute hazing has already been determined by the university and the state. Wether we agree with the definition or not is irrelevant. If we choose to violate them, we are violating the law and put us at risk for either jail sentence or lawsuits.

That's what I'm saying though. The states and schools have broad hazing laws, but individual Greek councils and conferences have much more specific rules. So, things like scavenger hunts aren't considered hazing in many places, but no NPC sorority is allowed to put together a hunt because of NPC hazing rules.

Our insurance company prohibits scavenger hunts for risk management and liability purposes, even for alumnae groups.

I will admit, our hazing policy is more strict than most laws, but then, historically, sororities and fraternities have hazed in different ways. The men's groups tend to do more physical hazing. The women's groups tend to more psychological hazing. It ends up harder to prove damage when it's psychological, but the damage to the self esteem can be horrendous and long lasting.

Dee

but... pledges aren't members yet, hence it would make sense that they would do study hall with thier brothers or sisters and not with the actives.

could it be age, wisdom, or still living on the short bus...
 

i went throught the articles and everyone's comments, and what i still dont get is, if what has happened is true, why????

im having very little sympathy for him. he has a chemical imbalance. how callous of him to treat his condition so lightly.

in addition to the hazing issue i guess i dont get the reason for the lawsuit.

We don't have pledges, we have new members. They are members the minute they accept their bid. They wear letters, begin being educated about the Fraternity, paying dues, and attending all activities. We pay International Dues on them and liability insurance fees on them. They ARE members.

Dee

Our girls are NOT allowed to wear letters at all during pledging . Getting your first set of letters is considered something sacred, important, and something to be savored. And it's a chance for your big to give you something pretty :). Hazing? Depends on who you ask. To us, it is a way to make sure that the girls are going to fully understand the meaning behind those letters and wear them with pride, grace, and true sisterhood. The giving of letters marks your first step into active sorority life.

I should probably leave this thread alone but... (there's that "but"!) Restrictions on letters are not hazing by the general definition. Some sororities have rules against withholding letters because it is safer to keep all "members" together from the start. If the sorority culture is warm to all women affiliated in any way with the sorority, the tendency to create cliques and classes lessens. I can see why large chapters would need to keep this in check, however, smaller chapters may not see the issues to a great extent. (I mean, how many cliques can you have in a chapter of, say, 10???)