What is this world coming to?

[ZZ-kai-]

I found this today on a yahoo fraternal news posting. Looks like another prank involving pledges turns into hazing........but how can pledges haze actives? In my eyes, its just another example of the system screwing the greeks. Seems like a little harmless fun to me.

---------------------------------------

The Associated Presspress
December 13, 2001

Four UConn students get accelerated rehabilitation

A Superior Court judge has given a special form of probation to three of four University of Connecticut fraternity pledges involved in a hazing incident last month.

The Sigma Chi pledges were accused of tying up a fraternity brother with duct tape with plans to throw him in Mirror Lake on the Storrs campus. Judge Jane Scholl ordered each student to perform 40 hours of community service during the next year and to refrain from taking part in other hazings....as if they are planned events every week or something.

The judge granted accelerated rehabilitation to freshmen Adam S. Goff, 18, of Holmdel, N.J., and Jeffrey R. Weeden, 18, of Lynn, Mass.; and sophomores Thomas E. Valeri II, 19, of Sterling, Mass..

The fourth accused student, Daniel S. Lapolla, 20, of Old Lyme, was not in court Wednesday and was expected to appear on Jan. 2 for an accelerated rehabilitation hearing.

If the students stay out of the trouble for the next year, the hazing charges would be erased from their records.

The pledges abducted the student from the library at about 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 after scolding him for not wearing his fraternity pin after dark, officials said. The foursome taped the student's hands and legs, tossed him in a vehicle and drove to the lake, police said.

A university police officer became suspicious and approached the car, where he found the bound student in the back seat.

The students told police they were planning to throw the student into the lake "as a joke," authorities said.

University officials said disciplinary action against the students
was pending, and Sigma Chi remains under investigation. The national chapter of Sigma Chi has placed the UConn chapter on probation for the rest of the semester.

[NeonPi]

Somehow, I don't think I would have found it very funny to be tossed into a lake with my legs and arms bound where I wouldn't be able to swim .... drowning isn't something I would want to experience ...

hazing doesn't have to be regular members to pledges - it works both ways ....

[IowaHawkeye]

The Daily Campus
University of Connecticut
November 16, 2001

4 pledges arrested for hazing at U. Connecticut say it was a misunderstanding

By Matthew Monks, The Daily Campus

On Nov. 7, four pledges to Sigma Chi fraternity were arrested for
hazing. According to University of Connecticut police captain Warren
Gilmour, Thomas Valeri, Daniel Lapolla, Adam Goff and Jeffrey Weeden
were pulled over in Goff's Ford Explorer after driving the wrong way
into the driveway to the information booth on the south side of
Mirror Lake. After interviewing the students, the officer discovered
that a brother of Sigma Chi, who wished to remain unnamed for the
purposes of this story, was bound with duct tape in the vehicle.

The officer arrested the four pledges for hazing and immediately
released them on a written promise to appear in court. According to
the student handbook, hazing means "any action which recklessly or
intentionally endangers the health or safety of a person for the
purpose of initiation."

According to Goff, all five people involved in the incident are
friends and that what they were doing was in good fun and at no time
was anyone in danger.

Valeri, Lapolla, Goff and the brother all live on the first floor of
Litchfield Hall in North Campus and Valeri and the brother are
roommates.

"We are all friends and still are friends and were not trying to hurt
each other," Goff said. "But I understand that the police officer was
just trying to reinforce that."

The brother said that the four pledges were going to throw him into
Mirror Lake but everything, including being duct-taped around his
calves, was done with his consent.

"At no point in time did I feel my safety was in jeopardy," the brother said.

Lapolla said that the arresting officers knew that the four pledges
were no real threat to the brother because the pledges were not
detained after the incident.

"If it was a clear and present danger to his safety. Š Then why did
they send him home with us?" he said.

The brother said that his fraternity commonly performed activities
like "kidnapping," but that pledges did not have to participate in
order to get into the fraternity.

"It's like a fun activity for the pledges. Š That's why the
university's pissed, because we condone something like this," he said.

Ross Siegel, president of the UConn chapter of Sigma Chi, said that
the four pledges are the only pledges to the fraternity this
semester. He said the incident is currently being investigated by
Greek Life and that all pledge events will be postponed until after
the investigation.

When asked if he knew beforehand whether the pledges were going to
detain a brother and throw him in Mirror Lake Siegel said, "We didn't
know they were going to take him from the library."

According to Judy Preston, coordinator of student organizations and
Greek Life, the victim was in the library when he was apprehended by
the four pledges.

Preston said the incident will be reviewed by a judication board at
an unspecified date. The board will determine first if hazing
occurred and then whether Sigma Chi as a whole or only the
individuals involved are responsible.

"What needs to be determined in this case - was there any suggestion
from the chapter that this could be a good act [or] was this
something they concocted on their own?" Preston said.

If it is determined that Sigma Chi is responsible she said that
possible penalties may include Sigma Chi having to sponsor a speaker
who will discuss hazing, the redesigning of the chapter's current
pledge program and lastly, loss of registration.

She said that if Sigma Chi loses its registration as a university-
recognized student organization, the national organization of Sigma
Chi may take the UConn chapter's charter away.

Preston said that this incident does not appear to be hazing because
it was four pledges apprehending a brother. Usually, she said, hazing
is something that brothers inflict on pledges, not the other way
around.

"That's your traditional [view] and that's what has a lot of folks
perplexed," she said.

Lapolla said that media coverage of the arrest has been overblown and
inaccurate.

"I saw it on channel 4 and Channel 8," Lapolla said, "It was in the
Willimantic Chronicle and they said we were brothers."

Lapolla specified that they were not brothers but pledges.

Lapolla said that it was really a small incident. They all went home
together and at no time was anybody in danger.

"The way they worded it is, if the police didn't intervene [we] would
have left him duct-taped and thrown him in the lake. We would have
left him to drown," Lapolla said.

Ted O'Brian, secretary of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, said that
"kidnapping" is a game that some fraternities often play. He said
that that his fraternity does not permit "kidnapping" because they
realize the possible legal ramifications of doing so.

He said he was familiar with the Sigma Chi incident and that his
fraternity was looking to avoid any similar problems.

"We had the big fight this semester," he said. "We don't need an
extra headache with the police."