Hazing News

[Alias_01]

Greetings all,

This email was sent to me on CollegeClub.Com I just thought i would share it with all greeks. No disrespect is intendedv from my part just passing on the word.

Peace and Love





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From: SigmaPrettyboy@collegeclub.com
Club: African-American Fraternities
Date: 3:57PM 06/19/01
To: AfricanAmericanFraternities@groups.collegeclub.com
Cc:
Subject: fwd: DAM bad news...hazing


Subject: Terrible News for Omega and all Black Greeks
To: All Black Greek Letter Organization

Members: I just thought I would pass this on. All Black Greeks are in
trouble and our existence in question if we don't pull it together. In
contrast, the "Sororities" seem to understand and have really cleaned up
their act. The "Fraternities", however, it is time for "us" to get on
board. FYI ..although the article is about Omega Psi Phi, others are
mentioned in the article as uniform examples of this behavior.
__________________________________________________ ___________

It is the beginning of the end for Omega and possibly BGLO. This is the
SECOND death which is two too many at this particular Omega chapter. I
know the Omega legal team is hustling to settle out of court. But will it
change anything. I doubt it. Alex DeJarnett Kappa Gamma FA'93 Omicron
Lambda More upsetting news about hazing........... Spring Ushers in a
Bloody Hazing Season for 'Black Frats' By Paul Ruffins This spring, the
pattern of illegal hazing that has threatened the survival of Black
fraternities and sororities has once again repeated itself with deadly and
devastating consequences. In early April, Nashville authorities officially
announced what many had suspected for months: The January death of
Tennessee State University student Joseph Green had been the result of an
underground pledging process by the university's Omega Psi Phi chapter.
Green, 25, collapsed while jogging on the track of Whites Creek High
School on an early morning in late January. He was taken to a nearby
medical center in cardiopulmonary distress and had a temperature of 103.7
before he died. When the results of the police and forensic investigation
were released, the official cause of Green's death was listed as exercise,
environmentally induced hypothermia and acute asthma attack as a result of
"exercise during fraternity initiation. "This is Omega's second hazing
death at TSU. In November of 1983, 20-year-old Vann L. Watts also died
trying to pledge the same chapter. His body was covered with bruises as a
result of being beaten with switches, and he had a blood-alcohol level
more than five times the legal limit. Kappa Alpha Psi's violent history of
hazing also has repeated itself. On two different campuses, Kappa pledges
were hospitalized with injuries that were virtually identical to those
suffered by pledges in a 1999 Kappa hazing incident at the University of
Maryland Eastern Shore. In late March at Old Dominion University in
Norfolk, Va., an 18-year-old Kappa pledge, who had been on line for at
least 50 days, experienced chest pains, collapsed and stopped breathing.
After he was hospitalized, the medical staff noticed extensive bruises on
his hands and buttocks, and the resulting criminal investigation revealed
the typical pattern of beatings and abuse. In a written statement to the
police, one of the fraternity's other two pledges said they had been
offered the choice of joining the fraternity by becoming a "paper" member
and going through the official process or by pledging, which would entail
"mental, physical and emotional abuse", but "would grant you all of the
respect, benefits and privileges of the organization." The pledges
willingly chose the abuse, which also may have involved being beaten by
Kappa's from Norfolk State University. Openly Defiant. One of the most
troubling aspects of this year's cases is how similar they seem to
previous hazing incidents, as if all the efforts of Black Greek Letter
organizations to eradicate hazing have had little or no impact at all. In
January, Ohio State University suspended its Alpha Phi Alpha chapter
because two students needed medical treatment as a result of unauthorized
intake sessions conducted last fall. Many White fraternities also seem to
have experienced an upsurge in hazing. "If anything, it seems that the
students have become even more openly defiant," says Dr. Walter Kimbrough,
vice president for student affairs at Albany State University in Georgia.
"I have recently given talks about hazing where students have directly
stood up and talked about pledging and being on line even though they know
it's against all the rules." Kimbrough went on to explain that, "...I am
very concerned that this latest death may finally push Omega over the
financial edge." Those fears are well-grounded. Green's mother has already
retained an attorney who is considering a lawsuit. In an article published
in January 2000, attorney Doug E. Fierberg - who won a $375,000 University
of Maryland case against the fraternity in 1997 - asserted that Omega Psi
Phi was no longer able to obtain liability insurance because it had lost
so many large settlements. The idea that students don't understand how
seriously they are threatening the survival of their organizations was
seconded by Lawrence Ross, the author of The Divine Nine: The History of
African American Fraternities and Sororities. "I have spoken out against
the hazing mentality at over 75 campuses in the past year or so," Ross
says. "But as evidenced by some of the hazing incidents this year, I think
that it's going to take a lawsuit that financially destroys one of the
nine before some members change their attitudes. Until we get to the point
where some of our members don't feel they must beat another student in
order to make themselves feel powerful, all of our fraternal organizations
will live under a 24-hour, 365-day a year vigil against being sued to
death." Mr. Sherman D. Lee, M.H.A.