LINDA DEUTSCH
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The family of one of two women who drowned during an alleged college hazing sued a sorority for wrongful death Wednesday, saying its members should have known it was dangerous to send pledges into heavy surf at night.
Kenitha Saafir, 24, had told her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters that she was afraid of the water and could not swim, attorney Carl Douglas said at a news conference. He claimed she was blindfolded and sent into the ocean at Dockweiler Beach dressed in a heavy sweatsuit, socks and tennis shoes.
"The ocean waters were at high tide and experiencing sets of waves that reached 6 to 8 feet high," said the lawsuit. "Deadly rip currents lurked just off the shoreline, invisible to the untrained eye against the moonlit sky. The night was dark."
Alpha Kappa Alpha, founded in 1908, is the oldest African-American sorority in America. The suit names its leaders and those present at the beach when the women drowned on Sept. 9, 2002.
Charles Albert, an attorney for the Chicago-based sorority, said in a telephone interview: "We don't believe the sorority has any liability. The individuals involved were pledging for a chapter that was suspended at the time."
Douglas said Saafir had spoken of her fear of water during a visit to the same beach two days before she and another pledge, Kristin High, 22, drowned there.
High's family sued the sorority earlier and a trial is scheduled in January. Douglas said he expects the suits to be joined.
Both Saafir and High were seniors at California State University, Los Angeles.
The new lawsuit claims several sorority sisters took four pledges to the beach, had them do strenuous calisthenics, blindfolded them, then ordered them into the ocean for more pledging activities.
"While Kenitha was performing one of the pledging rituals, she was knocked down by the violent surf and pulled underwater by the rip currents," the suit said. "Her lifeless body was eventually pulled to shore by rescuing law enforcement officers."
Saafir's husband, mother and siblings appeared at the news conference, bringing pictures of the young woman who was studying photography and had launched a graphic arts company with her husband.
Hazing is against the law in California, but Douglas said police have filed no charges.
"We are doubtful anything substantial is going to evolve of a criminal nature and so we have been left with the remedy of seeking justice in civil court," the attorney said.
Douglas said he was aware of the sorority's claim that the chapter was suspended. But he said that on the day of Saafir's death it was listed as an official chapter on the sorority's national Web site.
Albert said the sorority has an official policy against hazing which is included in its handbooks and brochures.
Douglas said the practice is banned in 42 states but continues nevertheless.
"Hazing is the dirty little secret of sororities and fraternities nationwide," he said.
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What I don't understand is what more can the national organization do? They have suspend the chapter, but the chapter became an underground chapter and hazed which resulted in a death. I think the national should sue the individuals because they gone against national policies. Isn't this also happening in Platsburgh where the national organization is suing the individual for keeping the chapter alive after they got their chapter revoked?
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