My sorority has never had that problem, at least while I was there. It isn't illegal to wear letters. Anybody can go buy a t-shirt that has greek letters on it. That right is not limited to people who are greek. As for claiming that you are a member of an organization. I'm not sure about that. I could see someone being brought up on charges of misrepresentation. I recently delt with this kind of case. Someone offering me a job claimed to work for a presigious Doctors office. The office was well know. This person did not work for the dr. office, and the dr's office pressed charges for misrepresentaion. The only legal action that I can see taken against someone would be misrepresentation. If you are walking around recruiting people, claiming to be a specific person, or even just walking around representing or promoting the organization these actions can be taken against someone, if there is proof that you were doing these things. If you are just walking around wearing the letters, that isn't grounds for misrepresentation. I hope that answered your question. I'm sure that it is just a misdemenor(sp?). The consequences could be time in jail(max 6 mos.) if it is serious, and a large fine. The other thing about it is, if you aren't a member and you are pretending to be one, I wouldn't want to find out what the real members would do if they found out. It depends on the people, but I might be scared they'd ruin my reputation or worse. But that's just me.
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Mikki Gates
Delta Zeta Alum
Kappa Mu Chapter
Sigma Alpha Iota Alum
Eta Tau Chapter
"I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special."
--Julia Roberts
(Steel Magnolias)
Visit me at:
http://homepages.go.com/~dzkm433/index.html
and
http://www.calypso.com/dzkm433/welcomtomyworld.chtml
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