Depositions Underway In AKA Drowning Lawsuit

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by ladygreek
Even if what has been reported is true, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. is NOT to blame just as Delta was not to blame for the tragic car accident that happened in Florida. Who are to blame are renegade members of the sororities who insist on defying our rules and regulations.

My prayers go out to the families of these young ladies. And I hope to God that the message is heard loud and clear--

MEMBERS cut out the stupidity!
PROSPECTS do not submit yourself to anything that is stupid or dangerous!

NONE OF US CONDONE HAZING!!!!!

Thank you, ladygreek, for this.
I'm still angry and shaking about this situation.

[nikki1920]

My condolences to the families of the victims.

Ladies who are interested: PLEASE understand two things.
1. If the chapter is not recognized by Nationals (no matter what the org), you will not be an OFFICIAL member of that org. You can confirm a chapter's status by calling the International HQ of any of the Four Sororities.


2. YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH THREE LETTERS!!!!!!! AKA, Delta, ZETA or SGRHO should not make you more of a woman than you already are.

Stuff like this gives us all a bad rep.

[lovelyivy84]

Originally posted by nikki1920
My condolences to the families of the victims.

2. YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH THREE LETTERS!!!!!!! AKA, Delta, ZETA or SGRHO should not make you more of a woman than you already are.

Stuff like this gives us all a bad rep.

I couldn't have said it better.

[pinkice8]

My heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to the families of those young ladies. This makes no sense. All this "underground pledging" has got to stop. A sorority or fraternity are not worth dying over. Your life is more than just letters across your chest, license plates and stepping. Come on sorors and frats all of this foolishness needs to stop. Two people are gone because so called "big sisters" wanted to pull rank. Does this make any greek organization look good? NO It makes all of the Devine Nine look very bad!!

[Salience]

I don't what is more upsetting about this situation. A renegade chapter in LA, where the Greek community is pretty tightly knit. The "anti-cat" mentality that still runs rampant. The gall of the women to call the families after, not (unless the story has been twisted, which it might well have) to offer condolences, but to spin their take. "Talking history?"

It's so tragic.

just fixing the code. ~Kel

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally posted by nikki1920
My condolences to the families of the victims.

Ladies who are interested: PLEASE understand two things.
1. If the chapter is not recognized by Nationals (no matter what the org), you will not be an OFFICIAL member of that org. You can confirm a chapter's status by calling the International HQ of any of the Four Sororities.


2. YOUR LIFE IS NOT WORTH THREE LETTERS!!!!!!! AKA, Delta, ZETA or SGRHO should not make you more of a woman than you already are.

Stuff like this gives us all a bad rep.

I also agree with you Nikki1920.

My condolences to the family and friends of these two young ladies. This is such a senseless act.

[CrimsonTide4]

Come out tomorrow night and take a stand against hazing.

Join your peers and the families of the Kenitha Saafir and Kristin
High as we hold a vigil at Dockweiler Beach. Tell everyone you know to come out and let the world know that we are not tolerating this behavior.

Thursday, September 12, 2002 at 7 PM
Dockweiler State Beach
8255 Vista del Mar, Playa del Rey

Look for the trail of parked cars and a banner.

Map of location: http://sgrho.com/images/vigilmap.gif

For any questions, please email Maiya (maiya20@hotmail.com) or
Stephanie
(stephanie@sgrho.com).

[prayerfull]

New info.....

Associated Press
September 11, 2002

Police: No evidence of hazing in drowning of two college women

LOS ANGELES -- Police said there was no evidence that hazing caused the
drowning of two college women in Playa del Rey, despite the assertion
by one of the victim's family members that sorority initiation rituals
caused the deaths.

Kenitha Saafir, 24, of Compton, and Kristin High, 22, of Los Angeles,
were pulled to shore late Monday night by police officers but could not
be revived, authorities said.

High, a California State University, Los Angeles student and mother of
a 2-year-old boy, had been undergoing an initiation rite for the Alpha
Kappa Alpha sorority, her mother, Pat Fargas, told Los Angeles
television stations. "She's crying back from her death to say stop this
hazing," Fargas said.

"They had them all dressed in black, they blindfolded them, told them
to hold onto each other" and then were directed along the beach, said
High's fiancee, Holman Arthurs. "I guess what happened, had to be, was
that it was high tide, and the tide went over them."

But authorities said a preliminary investigation indicated no hazing
was involved.

"No one was tied up or blindfolded or forced into the water," said
police Officer Jason Lee. "There were several girls possibly swept into the
ocean due to high surf at the time. The rest were able to come back to
the beach. Unfortunately, the victims were not able to."

Officers were sent the beach about 11:30 p.m. Monday on reports of
women screaming. The officers were met by four people who said that two of
their friends "were swept into the ocean and had not come out," Officer
Eduardo Funes said in a statement.

The officers dove into the ocean, located the women and pulled them
out. Attempts by police and paramedics to revive them failed.

Autopsies may be conducted Wednesday to determine the exact cause of
death. Their deaths are under investigation by authorities.

The sorority had no information on the incident, Executive Director
Betty James said from its Chicago headquarters.

Alpha Kappa Alpha has an anti-hazing policy adopted two years ago by
the National Pan-Hellenic Council Inc., according to its Web site.

A tearful Fargas, alleging the women had been undergoing initiation
rituals for weeks, said she wants to file charges against the sorority.

"I tried to talk to all of them this weekend and said stop it, and I'm
gonna call and report this, and now it's too late," she said.

[AKA2D '91]

1. So, is the Fargus lady a soror? I ask because "they" are saying an initiation rite. Uhhhhh...water, tides?

2. Mr. Arthurs, was he out there? Or, hearsay?

3. Sue the org?

4. Where are the so-called renegades?

5. If they would have been in their respectived dwellings, none of this would have happened. What happened to the liBERRY? a LSs home, room? It's still SAD and ridiculous.

[AKA_Monet]

Those of you in LA know that the NPHC net is a very tight knit group. So AKA was named along with 2 UG chapters/members...

All I can say is my Directorate is actively doing some "damage control"...

I feel for the families... Apparently, the mother really saw her daughter try hard to become a member of my Sorority or whatever. I dunno the true circumstances. To lose your daughter over some B.S. like that is inconsolable...

Irregardless who was involved, these young ladies should have had NO COMPELLING REASON to go into the ocean, blind-folded to join something at 11:30 PM!!!

So really, my issue is, given that these ladies are dead, what quite possible could these perpetrators say to any of us that would allow us to reconsider? And, although one should never think of doing these crimes against humanity, even if these suspects did not haze, how in the world can they get implicated??? One just does not do it in the first place!!! One just does not get involved with that dysfunction...

I am truly pissed off right now... But that's my opinion...

[Steeltrap]

Originally posted by AKA2D '91
1. So, is the Fargus lady a soror? I ask because "they" are saying an initiation rite. Uhhhhh...water, tides?

2. Mr. Arthurs, was he out there? Or, hearsay?

3. Sue the org?

4. Where are the so-called renegades?

5. If they would have been in their respectived dwellings, none of this would have happened. What happened to the liBERRY? a LSs home, room? It's still SAD and ridiculous.

Soror, Ms. Fargas (BTW, she spells her name the same way as the actor who played Huggy Bear) apparently told some TV reporters that she was a soror.

[DELTAQTE]

I don't know which young lady it was but one of them was a legacy, all the women in her family are aka's. So that may of been her mother.


QTE

[DoggyStyle82]

My sincere condolences go out to the families of the young ladies that drowned. However, I will reserve judgement on hysteria until the facts are out. This seems like a very crazy scenario to have women blindfolded and tied up in rough surf. Its been one day and already there are 3 very different versions. No, 3 letters are not worth dying for and no one should be engaging in any activity where one of the outcomes could be death. If there is any truth to come out of this story, it will have to come from the survivors. The family is already talking lawsuit and their precious children aren't even funeralized yet.

[Love_Spell_6]

I posted this reply in the AKA forum on this issue and I wanted to post it here as well.... Because of the comments I've seen expressed on GreekChat... I can see some members don't really see that their own mentality might be a contributing factor to incidents such as this.............................

I think there is a deeper issue to the problem....There are so many "old heads" in Sororities and Fraternities, that will not give you "respect" if you don't go that route. Now I don't mean, participate in things like this of course, but I mean the "other" process. Look at the situation with Vince Carter. Many "brothers" don't want to give him "respect" because he "pledged grad." Now many members of BGLO's will say the right thing i.e. "he's my brother regardless....or We're a non-hazing, oranization...blah, blah, blah..." but when it really comes down to it, the love isn't there. I proudly pledged an Alumnae chapter of DST, but there were so many who would not because of fear of how they would be treated. Now granted, you could say that maybe they didn't want be a part of the organization for the right reasons anyway if that deterred them, but...I think you all get the point. So much so, that many naive folks are willing to do WHATEVER it takes to "be down." I know the girls in this case are responsible for their own actions, however, man members of BGLO's should change the way others are treated that go another route. I know no one wants anybody to slip through the cracks into the organization, but if we keep putting a stigma on going grad..these things will continue to happen. I am trying to be as discrete as possible, but I know all the Greeks out there know what I am talking about.

[Blueknowledge]

How did we become what we've become? When did we stop being the avante guarde for black intellectualism? This is sad, and we have only ourselves to blame.

ALL OF US, killed those beautiful women. The fact remains is that even AFTER we joined our respective organizations, we have NOT done enough to change the culture and to rededicate our organizations to our founders principles. We rationalize violence, as ritual, or "right of passage." We give people "respect" to pledges because they were able to absorb more violence, than the average pledge. We really need to reflect. I'm certain that each one of us has particpated in the violence and justified it on some level. But its time to do away with it. And if you can't legitimize a person through violence, then you need to let your membership expire and find a new hobby.

About 4 months ago, I argued on the blue and white boards that it may be time to get rid of undergraduate chapters. I was marginalized by the others, as they have been completely socialized to the notion that there is ONLY ONE WAY TO PLEDGE. In that discussion, I told them that the undergrads would eventually lead to the death of the NPHC. I might as well had been talking to the wall.

It pains me when fraternities and sororities have to make statements like "prosecute the ones that did the crime." This kind of obfuscation is part of the problem. The fact remains is that when they die, they die because of a socially constructed culture that we promulgate. The die BECAUSE of the culture of NPHC. All of our organizations, and hence members, are therefore liable in the destruction, maiming and deaths of our brothers and sisters. Sad, truly sad.

If our founders could see what we do in their name, would they even want to form the organizations?