Court TV, Thurs. 10 p.m.: The Horrors of Hazing
 

* Teens today are willing to risk serious injury and even death to be accepted by the "right" clique. Evidence: fraternity and sorority hazing incidents led to the deaths of 20 college students in the past five years.

Al Roker explores this dangerous trend in his documentary, "The Horrors of Hazing."

Airing 10 p.m. Thursday on Court TV, it examines cultural, psychological and legal aspects of hazing through interviews with investigators as well as members of groups that practice these rituals -- and family members of victims.


(Yes, I'm sure that weatherman Al Roker, seen weekly on the Food Channel eating BBQ and homecooking, presents the definitive hazing investigation.)

I don't want to be callous but 20 deaths in 5 years, out of ALL the college students in the country in those 5 years, is really not very many........

I bet more committed suicide during that same period.

sweeps period is just about over with.
so let the cheap stuff go.
let the easy stories go...

autos
 

I saw that the deaths in traffic accidents EACH YEAR is like 1400 to 1700 college students.

LOL!
 

I thought he officially changed his name to Al Trying To @$#% Up My Super Expensive Bypass Surgery On A Daily Basis Roker.

Alfred
 

Alfred U. hazing on Court TV special
By JOHN ANDERSON
Wellsville Daily reporter
ALFRED | Court TV will air a special on hazing Thursday night featuring the 2002 death of Alfred University student Benjamin Klein.
Klein was found dead behind his Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house and the post office in Alfred on Main Street. Klein, 21, was allegedly beaten by two of his fraternity brothers and was discovered missing the next day.
Television personality Al Roker will explore the dangerous trend in the Court TV documentary "Al Roker Investigates: The Horrors of Hazing."

The program examines the cultural, psychological and legal aspects of hazing through interviews with investigators, current and former members of groups that practice these rituals, and family members of victims.
The show will air at 10 p.m. Thursday and Roker is expected to talk about the show that morning on NBC's "Today Show."
The Horrors of Hazing focuses on Klein, who was a member in good standing of the ZBT fraternity.
Klein's body was found severely beaten the morning after Tapping Night, when fraternities choose their new members. An investigation revealed Klein had been beaten by his fraternity brothers, as punishment for revealing secrets about their hazing rituals at a college conference in Syracuse just days before. The death was ruled accidental or suicide, but the incident led Alfred to shut down the university's fraternity system.
The case was originally looked at as a homicide.

More probably committed suicide last semester, than the amount of hazing deaths over the last 20 years.

Re: Alfred
 

Really, this is not a hazing death. Klein was a member, not a pledge. I wonder if Al, the Super Reporter, will mention that.

Hazing
 

I don't condone hazing at all, but 20 deaths in five years isn't that many. I'm sure many more college student die of binge drinking than hazing. I'm happy to say our chapter doesn't haze, in fact the only hazing I was ever victim of was as a freshmen football player in high school. It really pisses me off that the media has to be so negative about everything.

Any death caused by an illegal act is one too many. Hazing is illegal.

I completely agree. Yes, 20 deaths may not sound like many, but that's 20 people that would still be alive if the hazing had not occured.

I'm watching this.. it's pretty awful. To top it off, our favorite author <heavy sarcasm> is interviewed. (Yes, I'm talking about Alexandra Robbins).

They keep referring to hazing as "ritual", which always makes me ill. They are focusing on a local sorority at Loyola called Tri Phi.

I am watching it too. Wow.....

Here is the background on Tri-Phi:

http://www.stophazing.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000325.html

Styx vows to eradicate Tri-Phi
http://maroon.loyno.edu/news/2003/03...i-401728.shtml

TRI PHI SUIT SAYS ADMINISTRATORS VIOLATED HANDBOOK
http://maroon.loyno.edu/news/2004/04...k-670341.shtml

Unintentional comedy
 

I flipped over to this and the first thing I see is Al Roker with his pudgebelly in all its glory. And where are they going? To the Uni-Mart, home of after bar nachos. So I'm rolling on the damn floor.

We've talked about that Tri-Phi deal before on here, and basically the college doesn't have a leg to stand on, or wouldn't if they were public. They can kick students out for picking their nose if they want cause they're a private college.

So if they can't be dealt with as individual students (those who are Loyola students) violating a school hazing policy, shouldn't they be charged with legal charges?

This whole thing about it being "games" and "girlish fun" is a bunch of crap. Don't gangs play the same types of games?

I'm really sick of hearing hazing excuses. Really really sick of it. :mad:

PsychTau

Yes. The New Orleans police should kick their butts from here to Paraguay. Once they are found guilty through that venue, the school has every right to suspend them. The point is that it is not a school org, so pressing charges is not a school issue. This opens the door to the school being able to discipline students for being members of other organizations that aren't recognized or campus based - in this case, the local chapter of Planned Parenthood springs to mind.

Well...what about the school consequenting them individually because 1. they are students of the school, and therefore must follow school rules; and 2. they violated the school hazing policy. This is of course assuming that the school has a hazing policy, and that it is worded in such a way that individual students can be held responsible for hazing other individual students...whether it was part of the Junior League initiation or a recognized student organization.

Sounds like the school didn't follow their written judicial procedures (from the articles someone linked to), which gave the girls a legal leg to stand on. Had they had a written no hazing policy that was focused on individual students (and didn't just say "organizations") and they would have followed their own due process, the court may have upheld the suspensions.

(not arguing with you 33girl, just discussing!)

PsychTau

Court TV dropped the ball on this one.
 

I think Al should stick to his specialties - barbecue, home cooking, and weather. His 'investigation' threw out the 20 hazing deaths in five years, but listed none.

No Tri Phi died. A ZBT died, probably a suicide and drug overdose.

Only one side was aired - by Norman Pollard (a not-unbiased Alfred U. staffer, further discussed in Risk Mgt.) and Robbins (who wrote an accusatory book, with no attribution or sources). Where was the spokesman for national GLOs? Where was the mention that every GLO bans hazing?

Where was the mention of actions GLOs have taken against hazers and hazing chapters.

In the past five years, I'll bet 50 chapters have been closed for hazing, and 150 more punished for hazing.

Court TV dropped the ball on this one.

As coming from a Sorority that has completely rearranged its who membership process as a result of hazing and still unable to root it out after the drowing incidences in California, I think I have some hardcore thoughts about what I just watched on TV...

It sounds to me that Al Roker's daughter may have wanted to go something and either didn't get a bid or whatever and he's out to nail all greek organizations in general because he's one of those GDI's...

Hateful GDI's fail to realize or want to understand the necessity of fraternities or sororities of campus life... So the ceremoniously eliminate ALL organizations with greek letters from campus because they do not want to deal or work together to make some options...

Also hateful GDI's have their own personal agendas--like they weren't picked to pledge back in the day and it still "smarts" from that experience... I've seen plenty of that...

However, pledges should not be forced to binge drink under the banner of a greek lettered organization... I don't care if it's alcohol or straight up too much water...

And where are all the former adult Alumni that ought to be around when these kinds of membership events occur? Narry a mention of THAT????

All I saw was a bunch of hateful GDI's

I didn't see the presentation but I think you hit the nail on the head. It's ridiculous that we not only have to deal with members who REFUSE to follow guidelines but also non-members.:rolleyes:

The non-members come up with crazier ideas of pledging than the members themselves who did pledge...

I also think that in the "heat of the moment" some folks get all caught up into the hype and start congfabulating stories--like, "yeah, yeah, we did that--run around naked in the cemetary to show how bad we were..." When ain't nunna dat neva did happen dere lak dat!!! (Good use of triple negatives).

Amen to that my friend!

i didn't see the program, but i am just guessing that the reason that no one from a national org was interviewed because they didn't want to be. i have a feeling that they were probably approached, but no one wants to say that hazing isn't tolerated (and point out how chapters are closed or otherwise punished for offenses). and then next month (week, year, etc) have a chapter get in trouble so the press could say...oh xyz said on national tv that they don't condone hazing, so why didn't they stop the chapter at alpha university? i am sure some smarmy lawyer can turn that around quickly in court.

again...i have no facts, just my opinion.

Hi, resident Loyola kid here.

Tri Phi was originally the upper class sorority-the krewe queens were all Tri Phis. However, when Loyola decided to make all the sororities go national because of liablity and risk management issues, Tri Phi split. Half came back as a national, the other half stayed off campus.

And then the hazing got bad. We all knew who was pledging because they wouldn't show up for class as well as other telltale hazing signs. However, the university couldn't do anything about it because Tri Phi was not a recognized campus organization and did not haze on campus. We kept hearing about girls who were forced to drink until the passed out, one girl who almost died because the others wouldn't take her to the hospital.

After those incidents, the interim president went after the Tri Phis and expelled the ones mainly involved with the hazing. However, one of the girls' fathers is a lawyer, and he's trying to sue the school because they did not perform illegal activities on campus. I don't think that the NOPD got involved.

i agree with some past posts and being that i work in higher ed WITH ALL student organizations, i think the university should take actions against those that hazed. At my campus (and the one i used to work at) it was against the code of conduct to haze any student, regardless of whether it was in an organization. there are also harrassment statues, and the behavior seems like it could be considered harassment (not being a lawyer nor being from LA, hard to know what their laws say). we also have something about students treating eachother with respect.

i would be on the a** of the administration here if they just sat around and said "we can't do anything b/c they're not a student organization". bull.

it would have been nice if some of the steps nationals have taken to reduce/eliminate hazing were noted. we try and try, but we can't police students all the time. as adults, they are going to do whatever they want. we have to hope and pray that they have been educated well enough about hazing, alcohol & drugs so that no one will get hurt or die.