A First? TX A&M dorm officers ousted for hazing

[hoosier]

RHA, Hart officers charged with hazing

By Rolando Garcia
October 11, 2002

The vice president of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and other residence hall student leaders may be ousted from their positions for their involvement in an alleged hazing incident, but the students are condemning the University's proceedings as a sham trial rigged against them.

Student Conflict Resolution Services meted out sanctions this week to Eric D'Olive, RHA vice president for administration, Jennifer Caballero, the president of Hart Hall, Rashaun Fontenot, Hart's vice president, and at least four other Hart residents for hazing freshman Clayton Whittle, who also lives in Hart.

The students were given conduct probation, which according to A&M student rules places them "not in good standing with the University" and ineligible to hold office in any student organization. Whittle received hall probation, which is a warning that a student is in violation of residence hall rules. All are appealing the decision.

The charges, D'Olive said, stem from a Sept. 16 incident in which he and others duct taped Whittle to a swivel chair and tried to spin him around until he vomited, an activity D'Olive and Whittle characterized as friendly horseplay.

A group of Hart residents had gone to Sbisa Dining Hall to eat dinner together, and Whittle ate 18 Push-Pops to break the unofficial Hart Hall record. To hold the record, a student must not throw up afterwards, D'Olive said, and so he and others playfully attempted to make Whittle throw up when they had returned to Hart.

Outside, in plain view, D'Olive said, they tried to tie Whittle to the swivel chair. Whittle said the prank was random and harmless.

"We were all joking, and I just wish I'd had my camera," said Whittle, a business major.

Matt Fuller, the Hart director, came outside and stopped the activity, D'Olive said. After speaking briefly with the participants, Fuller wrote an incident report which he submitted to University officials. The report, D'Olive and other participants maintain, is full of gross inaccuracies and fabrications, especially its assertion that hall leadership had made a tradition of making students who broke the Push-pop record vomit.

"It is in no way a tradition," said D'Olive, a senior international studies major.

Fuller could not be reached for comment Thursday.

According to University rules, hazing is defined as "any act that endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student for the purpose of initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in a group or organization."

[The1calledTKE]

Looks like they were trying to break a record not doing it to join an org, how can that be hazing?

[Eupolis]

zntke711: The student who ate the food ate it to break a record. The people who tried to make him ill can't justify it that way.

You're right, though, that no organization appears to be involved. However, "organization" doesn't have to mean formal or recognized organization. It can plausibly be interpreted to mean any social group. If they put pressure on him suggesting that he might be excluded from a group of friends if he didn't submit to this, then it could be hazing.

Even if they didn't put pressure on him, if they tied him and spun him without his consent, that's civil false imprisonment, civil battery, and probably their criminal equivalents as well. I somehow doubt he's going to want to sue, but the school or the government can go after them whether or not the student wants charges pressed.

(Contrary to popular belief, the government can press charges in criminal cases even if the alleged victim doesn't want them to.)

[Lady Pi Phi]

If this guy was forced to eat the push pop and then made to trhow up was some form of initiation or painful welcoming into residence or university life, it is still considered hazing whether he was joining an organization or not.

On a side note. Something similar to this happened at my highschool. A 10th grader was duct taped to a chair and then dut taped to the flag pole outside in the pouring rain, by 2 guys who were in grade 12 at the time. The two responsible for this were not reprimanded by the school authorities and not charged with hazing. They were arrested by the police and charge with assult. Things like these aren't to be taken lightly, even if the victim doesn't mind, he might be resposible for getting others in trouble.