Initiation or Incarceration Hazing in Fraternities and...

Initiation or Incarceration: Hazing in Fraternities and Sororities Frat boys and sorority girls, what do they do for society? They party all weekend, every weekend. None of them care about academics. They are elitist and snobby. They violate noise ordinances. They do not serve the community. They couldn’t possibly hold any value as individuals in our society, right? Wrong. Many people think of those who belong to the Greek system as the rich, preppy Caucasian students who get drunk and party on a day-to-day basis; these among other stereotypes have, in essence, erased even the thought of belonging to a sorority or fraternity from the minds of countless students. While in actuality, Greeks are the students who do the best in†¦show more content†¦This happened to the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep) when thirty one pledges were found in a crawl space in an off campus house. The young men were shivering in thirty degree weather, covered in raw eggs, catfish-stink bait, flour and vinegar, and they were covered in red welts. W hen things this intense happen, people get hurt and people get in trouble. Thankfully no one got hurt in the incident at FSU, but four brothers did get arrested and charged with misdemeanor hazing charges. But it doesn’t always happen where no one gets hurt. In a case involving the Chi Tau fraternity at Chico State University in California, Matthew Carrington died after being hazed too hard by the fraternity brothers. One man, Gabriel Maestretti, was charged with Matthew’s death and convicted of felony charges. At the present, forty four out of fifty states have laws against hazing, and even still there is at least one hazing related death on a college campus every year since 1970. Fraternities all over the country have been shut down for behavior involving the hazing of pledges. In the state of Florida, just recently, FSU’s Sig Ep chapter and the University of South Florida’s Lambda Chi Alpha chapter have been shut down completely and not just suspended or removed from campus, both for hazing. And while the public normally only sees hazingShow MoreRelatedBullying in the National Spotlight2365 Words   |  10 Pagesthrough so I could relate with the juniors and seniors on the team. Some may see it was an initiation process and some may see it as a type of bulling or hazing. Rainer Martens (2012) discusses that bullying is an act of aggression by someone or a group with the intent of harming a person either physically or psychologically through hitting, threatening, intimidating, teasing or taunting. He defines hazing as a form of bullying created by a group to intentionally produce mental or physical discomfort