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Fraternities and Sororities are not allowed in New York State High Schools, however, when I went to High School we had two of each that were "underground." They hazed unmercifully. The girls were humiliated daily and the boys ended up in the hospital quite a few times because of being paddled and then left out in the cold with no clothes and no way to contact any one to get home.
Each of the groups had been long standing organizations in my high school (60 years old or so when I was in HS) so my town was full of alums of these 4 groups. Therefore everyone, even the adminisration, turned a "blind eye" during the obvious annual hazing of new members.
The hazing was absurd and ridiculously cruel and in the end the groups themselves did absolutely nothing during the rest of the year except have a "hell night" which was their ritual initiation, and then throw one party during the year
Every single fall new kids would join...I simply don't understand it. Imagine being a 15 year old girl and being told that you have to carry around a box of tampons with you everywhere, in full sight, that you cannot wear make up, that you have to wear the same sweat suit every single day, that you cannot wash your hair more than once a week, that you need to do your future sisters' homework. Imagine being asked to sexually proposition senior boys, or being told to run behind the soccer team chanting about your sexual availability. Imagine being called a "dog" in public by your future "sisters"...yes, they were even called "dogs," not pledges.
Ugh, some of my girl friends went through it and it was totally crazy. However, when their senior year rolled around they felt it was their right to haze a new group of girls, that that was the only thing that made what they went through worth it, and so the cycle continued.
Many women from my high school were very reluctant to join sororities during college because of either going through, or simply witnessing what our high school sororities were like.
I myself spent hours attempting to explain to quite a few of my high school girlfriends why my sorority experience was inherently different than what we had been exposed to. Many were pretty sure that I had lost my mind when I decided to join ADPi, and I understood where they were coming from. Luckily, my long and passionate talks defending and promoting sororities convinced two of my close friends to Go Greek and they both became Alpha Gamma Deltas...and they were both very happy AGDs!
okay that's my story,
Greek Love and Peace,
violets
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