Category: Hazing

I am the new Activities Director at Litigation High School. After reading and reviewing the LHS Risk Management Plan, I noticed there is no mention of hazing. Hazing is defined as “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers, regardless of person’s willingness to participate.” I understand the risks that can come from hazing, so I am implanting hazing into our risk management plan.

The first step in the risk management plan is “risk identification”. Often times, students have trouble understand exactly what hazing is. Along with this, if they know hazing is happening, they lack the information on the steps they should take to report it. The University of Rochester has a great quote on hazing, it states “Being able to identify hazing is an important step in eliminating it”. Their website goes on to say that hazing can fall into three different sections. Those sections are power differential hazing, harassment hazing, and violent hazing. Power differential hazing, often falsely viewed as harmless, is usually more mental than physical. In most cases, it occurs with new members and existing members of a group. It compromises respect between people and leads to ridicule, embarrassment, and humiliation of new members. Harassment hazing leads to emotional and physical stress. Most of the time, it is unwanted verbal abuse when someone makes fun of someone for things like race, color, religion, sex, origin, age, or disabilities. The last type of hazing, violent hazing, is engaging in activities that cause physical, emotional, or psychological harm to new members. This Is often times through initiation activities for members attempting to join a new group.

The next step in the risk management process is risk assessment. As we learned in lecture, risk assessment is “the process of determining the probability that particular risks will result in claims during a specified period and the magnitude of the potential liability arising from such claims”. Now that we know what the types of hazing are, we are going to look into the risks of hazing. According to Babson College, “71% of people who are hazed suffer from negative consequences.” Some of those consequences are physical, emotional, or mental instability, sleep problems, loss of control and empowerment, decline in grades and coursework, relationship issues, post-traumatic stress syndrome, loss of respect and interest in an organization, trust issues with group members, illness/hospitalization, and in some cases death. The risks the person doing the hazing are being faced with legal actions, disciplinary actions, membership sanctions, and personal impact. On top of this, school districts and the school itself can also be faced with these sanctions as well if they do not take the proper steps to eliminate or control the hazing. Quoting the website Inside Hazing, “in high school 1.5 million high school students receive some form of hazing every year. 91% of high school students belong to a group, and 48% of them report being subjected to hazing activities.” This website also goes on to say that “92% of high school students will not report a hazing. 59% know of hazing activities and 21% admit to being involved in hazing.” With that information, we can conclude that the risk of having a claim can be extremely high since so many kids receive hazing each year. Looking at the history however, we can determine that a majority of kids do not report hazing. It is always beneficial to stay on the safe side, so our priorities will include a no tolerance policy for hazing at Litigation High School.

The next step in the risk management process is risk evaluation. The mission statement of Litigation High School is “to continue our tradition of excellence in an opportunity filled world. We encourage kids to obtain knowledge in a safe environment with a tight core of high-quality educators to prepare our students to achieve excellence in their desired field of study. We honor success and encourage students to promote pride in themselves and in our community. We strive to help our students develop character both inside and outside of the classroom to enable students to be able to operate at the highest level of their ability.” With that being said, we can evaluate the risks of hazing in conjunction with our mission statement. We encourage kids to be involved in groups, athletics, and to be involved in the community. We understand that hazing can be involved in an initiation process for students to be involved in groups or athletics. Since we have a zero-tolerance policy for hazing, we need to develop strategies to eliminate hazing activities to occur. The Indiana University of Pennsylvania has a great 7 step process of eliminating hazing. Their handbook lists the steps as follows:

1. “Recognize the existence of hazing
2. Interpret the practices as a problem
3. Believe that they have a responsibility to do something
4. Know what to do
5. Acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to act
6. Overcome fear of potential negative consequences
7. Take Action”

We will start by digging to the first step “Recognize the existence of hazing”. At Litigation High School, we will sit down with the students and explain to them what hazing is. We will go into depth about power differential hazing, harassment hazing, and violent hazing. The next step, “Interpret the practices as a problem”, we will explain to the kids that if they are aware of hazing, they need to understand that it is problematic and that something needs to be done. The third step, “Believe they have a responsibility to do something”, means that after they interpret the hazing practices they observe as problematic; they need to understand that they have a responsibility to take action. The best way to get this point across is to put themselves in the shoes as the person that is being hazed. By doing this, they will understand that getting hazed is not fair and can be very detrimental to their health. They will then understand that they need to take action. In order to take action, they will need to understand the fourth step “Know what to do”. We will explain to them that they can encourage the person to leave the group to avoid the hazing, report the hazing to a faculty member (anonymously if they wish), or encourage the group to modify their practices. The fifth step, “acquire the knowledge and skills to act”, would be giving students the information on what to say and how to say it to the person they are reporting the hazing to. Whether that means they are reporting it to the person receiving the hazing, a faculty member, or the group member doing the hazing, the student will understand the proper terms and skills to report the hazing. Step number six, “Overcome fear of potential negative consequences”, means giving the students the confidence to report the hazing. We understand students may not report hazing because they are scared of receiving negative consequences such as retaliation or anger/hate from the person doing the hazing. At Litigation High School, we will do everything we can to provide students with the confidence to report hazing and explain they their actions could save a person life or make their life a lot easier and more enjoyable. The final step, “Take Action”, means the student has provided the necessary information to a respondent and the hazing has be deceased.

The next step in our risk management plan in develop a preventive law plan. The four clauses of a preventive law plan are risk elimination, risk retention, risk transfer, and risk control. We mention in our mission statement that we encourage kids to obtain knowledge in a SAFE environment, so we want to make sure our students are able to operate without worrying or being fearful of hazing. Since we have a zero-tolerance policy, we also highly advise groups and sports teams to avoid hazing newcomers. Looking into the first aspect of the preventive law plan, we want to eliminate risks as best we can. We do not want to take “the easy way out” and shut down groups or athletic teams for the rest of the year if hazing occurs. However, if we do get reports of hazing, we will pull the people doing the hazing from the activity and will not allow them to participate until the issue is resolved. The next part of our preventive law plan is risk control, which means having a plan in place to have a reduction of risk for our program. As mentioned earlier, we will follow the 7 steps to inform kids of what hazing is and how to prevent and report it.

The final step in our risk management plan is implementing our preventive law plan. By starting off, we will make sure that our prevention plan is an agreement with our core values and our mission statement. We will also use it as a management tool by making sure teachers, students, and faculty members have access to our plan at all times. Whether that means having in online or in a handbook, anyone can access our plan anytime. We will also hold a meeting with our teachers and faculty and make sure that they understand in the importance of our plan and know how to spread the word and remind their students about our preventative plan.

What is hazing? In order to understand the story on how after being found culpable by an Orange County jury, Martin was sentenced to 77 months ‘ imprisonment for murder, assault and two counts of crime hazing it is first needed to understand the origin of hazing. “hazing consists of a set of initiation rituals in which a vast number of students participate in. It involves the exertion of power by senior students over newcomers, in an asymmetric logic that imposes a seniority-based hierarchy.” (Analise Social 2019). Furthermore hazing has been common in many places, such as when you get a new job or even in the army. “A ritual of harassment and humiliation used to initiate a person into a group, hazing is especially associated with college fraternities, but similar behavior is evinced by other close-knit and particularly male groups, including sports teams, private schools, gangs, and military units.”(Hazing 2015)

There are always going to be those evaluations given by others to prove yourself in a certain place. Things start to get hectic when these challenges suddenly become lethal and no longer determine actual dedication or pride for something. What I mean by this is that hazing goes along the acts or circumstances that, with or without participant’s consent, endanger a student’s psychological, physical, or educational health or safety knowingly, purposely or unwittingly. Why is it that people haze? Persons and groups, for many reasons, participate in dangerous practices. Many individuals can participate in harmful activities because they have the power to exercise over younger members. Others may pursue positive results for hazing, for example team building and group growth. Hazing can include involuntary or other alcohol use, but are not limited to beating, paddling, marking certain forms of attack, Coerced intakes of disgusting substances, water poisoning, and planned violence. Hazing is highly illegal in Florida and only days before the vacation time, the FAMU(Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) family learned that death had formerly been pronounced homicidal. A few band members allegedly committed the hazing incident kill Champion from a series of blows on his body.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was doing two separate investigations on FAMU. A sample comes from the accident of the marching band. The second focuses on the management of some school funds, including a marching band, relating to its music program.

In connection with the hazing incident causing Champion’s death, Florida’s law enforcement authorities allegedly concentrated on thirty four FAMU band members. Many students may face arrest with possible charges, including dangerous activities, murder, and second degree killings, depending on the performance of the investigation. “During the ritual, members of Florida A&M’s renowned “Marching 100” band were struck repeatedly as they crossed from the front of the bus to the back, and Martin was ‘president’ of Bus C, according to court records. Champion passed out after finishing the crossing and later was pronounced dead at a hospital.” (Tallahassee Democrat, 13 Dec. 2018). There are no limits when it comes to hazing and clearly Martin thought he would know Champion’s limit but unfortunately he arrived to the hospital and was pronounced dead at arrival. When you become a bystander around hazing you are at fault of it all. “A few weeks after the hazing death, Ammons, a FAMU alum, relieved White of his duties and notified White he would be fired in December over his handling of the incident.”(Stuart R, 2012) I believed this situation was handled well by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. No form of hazing should be overlooked, especially if a death was involved. It is unfortunate that students in the marching that were innocent will face the same consequences as the students involved in the hazing ritual but I believe that is where justice comes in and takes place for the death of Champion. The alumni of FAMU believe that there should and there will be consequences for the death of Champion as well as precautions so this does not happen again.

Dangerous national events are difficult to quantify since traditional rituals, particularly drinking and beating rituals, occur outside the public eye. “Studies show that hazing, although prohibited by most states and many schools, remains pervasive across the country — and not just at college fraternities and sororities.”(Hosansky, D. 2013) I agree with challenges to a certain extent. I believe being tested with having certain knowledge or having the drive to remain part of something really determines the ones who want it most. Notwithstanding this, in many universities many lines are crossed when it comes to certain rituals. Another example of this happened at Penn State when a fraternity waited too long to call an ambulance for one of their members, Tim Piazza, who had fallen down the stairs during a hazing event. “Now he had a lacerated spleen, an abdomen full of blood, and multiple traumatic brain injuries. He had fallen down a flight of stairs during a hazing event at his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, but the members had waited nearly 12 hours before calling 911” I think it is futile and immature to be embarrassed or forced to do anything you know is dangerous to you. Youth is sometimes to engaged to understand the consequences but I believe youth is not too oblivious to understand certain things can actually kill someone. To conclude, had Champion’s surroundings not acted like bystanders, he could have been alive today same goes for Tim Piazza’s life. It’s important to shine a light on hazing for many universities. Most schools go in the right direction with hazing courses, but when they do, students must also learn to ‘see something, say something.’

The main problem being discussed is sexual assault on college campuses targeting fraternities as being the most frequent place for this to take place. Fraternities are notoriously known to be a dangerous place for women. Sexual assault on college campuses has been a serious issue but thankfully, there have been non-legal options, activists, and legislative acts that have been put in place to counter sexual assault.

Some statistics for sexual assault, according to National Women Veterans United, include 25% of college women report that they have survived rape or an attempted rape, every 21 hours, another woman is raped on a college campus today, 91% of victims of sexual assault are women, 75% of the women who reported a rape while on college campus were under the age of 25, 25% of victims surveyed were sorority members, and fraternity men are three times more likely to commit rape than their non-Greek peers. The real question is why are fraternities a place where frequent sexual assault occurs? There are four general topics for setting the scene at a fraternity party: loud noises, dark setting, a lot of people, and a lot of alcohol. At these parties both men and women are consuming heavy amounts of alcohol and not in the best mindset to make proper decisions. Being under the influence can cause sexual violence to be a more frequent event.

There are two factors that play into fraternity men committing sexual assault: toxic masculinity and hazing. Toxic masculinity, or ‘macho personality’ refers to the socially constructed attitudes that was crafted by Mosher and Serkin in 1984 which describes the masculine gender role as violent, unemotional, sexually aggressive, and describe the experience of this type of danger exciting. To back this up, according to KPBS news, a man named Episcopo who is a part of Sigma Phi Epsilon (does not specify college) discusses how both fraternity men and non-Greek men are told that they have to get laid by a girl at the party. If they don’t, they’re considered a low-life or a ‘pussy’. This creates an extreme social pressure to ‘blend in’ and having this mindset can cause someone to be more aggressive, especially when adding in alcohol, with women at the party. In addition, from experience I have noticed that girls dress in provocative ways to fraternity parties and this certainly gets the guys’ attention. Some people say that since they dress in this way that they’re almost asking for it. I completely disagree with this and having this mindset causes sexual violence to be a frequent occurrence at fraternity parties. Hazing also plays a role in sexual violence: in my presentation I showed a picture of three pledges woken up abruptly early in the morning, told to strip naked, and had flour poured all over them by brothers. Hazing causes humiliation and also causes built up anger among the pledges. These men who have experienced this hazing feel submissive to the brothers and after becoming initiated feel that they need to be dominant to compensate for their humiliation. One can see how hazing can be linked to sexual violence.

An example of hazing and sexual assault by a fraternity on college campus occurred at Indiana University. The fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega (ATO), was shut down after a video surfaced of a crowd of shirtless men surrounding and shouting as one guy was forced to perform oral sex on a woman while another naked female was kicking and slapping him. The Alpha Tau Omega national CEO Wynn Smiley told FOX 59 that the video “speaks for itself” and that this chapter “does not in any way reflect the fraternity at large.” This is just one of the many examples of sexual assault and hazing that take place in fraternities on college campuses.

While the case that occurred at Indiana University had plenty of evidence to provide to justify the use of both sexual violence and hazing, there was an incident that occurred at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party at University of Virginia where there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that a sexual assault case took place. Rolling Stone magazine wrote about the horrific story about a freshman girl named Jackie claiming that she was gang raped by seven young men. While researching this fraternity I came across the University of Virginia fight song called “Rugby Road.” The song goes like this “from Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill, we’re gonna get drunk tonight; the faculty’s afraid of us, they know we’re in the right; so fill up your cups, your loving cups, as full as can be; as long as love and liquor last, we’ll drink to the U of V.” One can see how alcohol can play a huge role in sexual violence not just in this fraternity, but all fraternities that have this mindset. To continue on, this naïve girl wasn’t really a drinker but decided to drink because she didn’t want to come across as a goody-goody at her first fraternity party. She also wanted to impress her date who was a brother at Phi Kappa Psi. Her date, Drew, invited her upstairs and she said yes but according to the article “[her] heart quickened.” Drew and Jackie had met as lifeguards at the university pool. Drew led her upstairs shutting the door behind them. The room was completely dark and while in the room sensed movement and felt someone bum into her. From this she screamed and then heard a man’s voice say ‘shut up’. Someone barreled into her knocking her into a low-glass table shattering the glass. From there, a heavy man went on top of her spreading her legs, while another person was holding down her hair and her arms pinned to the floor with a lot of excited voices surrounding her. She claims that this event lasted three hours and in that time, seven men took turns raping her while two other men, Drew being one of them gave them instruction and encouragement. Jackie vividly remembers how some of the men there were egging one of the guys on to finish the job because he was struggling to “keep it up” and one man asked him “Don’t you want to be a brother?” From this, she realized that the men raping her were pledges and this was their initiation process. Even more dark a brother said “We all had to do it, so you do, too.” This is where the toxic masculinity and hazing comes into play: being heartless, aggressive men to be accepted into the brotherhood.

On the ABC news report they discuss how sexual violence cases are “handled internally; [with] little punishment of perpetrators.” They go on to discuss the “prevalence of sexual assault” on this college campus and how many do not get reported. Unfortunately, sexual assault cases occur on college campuses but some victims are thrown away by the school because their case might be considered ‘smaller’ than another case. Why do they do this? A school or university solely cares about their reputation above all else.

The Virginia Alpha Chapter was shut down for some time but then was reinstated after “consultation with Charlottesville Police Department officials, who told the University that their investigation has not revealed any substantive basis to confirm that the allegations raised in the Rolling Stone article occurred at Phi Kappa Psi.” This is just one example of a women claiming that she was sexually assaulted, and while the story told is fairly convincing, there wasn’t sufficient enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that sexual violence occurred at this fraternity.

Since sexual assault is a pressing issue on college campuses, there has been legislative history to counter this sexual assault. Some examples of the legislative history directly linked to my topic include Title IX (1972), Alexander v. Yale (1977), and the Campus SaVE Act (2011).

The first form of legislative history is Title IX which states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” The first time Title IX was implemented was in Alexander v. Yale (1977). The court ruled that “sexual harassment resulting in a loss of educational benefits is a significant injury, redressable by law.” The significance of this case was that it broke the silence of campus sexual harassment with the following stories of five women who were among the first female students to enter the gates of Yale University. Three of the five girls had sexual assault cases that directly affected them. Ronni Alexander, and Margery Reifer claimed that they were sexually harassed by a flute teacher and hockey coach. Sadly, Yale provided no place for them to go to complain. Pamela Price claimed that a course instructor offered to give her an ‘A’ if she complied with his sexual demands. Again, Yale did not provide a safe place to go to complain. Why? College campuses care about their own reputation above the victims’ needs.

Another form of legislative history is the Campus SaVE Act (2011) which requires incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking to be disclosed in an annual campus crime statistic report. This act also provides students with lawyers, advisors or advocates and, in addition, institutions have to provide education on sexual violence prevention and awareness through orientation programs.

When it comes to activism against sexual assault and harassment, there is a woman named Jess Ladd who is 29 years old and the CEO of Sexual Health Innovations. She was sexually assaulted at Pomona College as a freshman. Ladd stated that “there are a lot of reasons that college survivors take an average of 11 months to file a report.” I feel that the reason for this is because being sexually assaulted must make an individual feel submissive and have many emotions jumping through their head at the same time and don’t feel that they are ready to discuss it. Another statement that Ladd made was that she found the process “of reporting to be more traumatic than the assault itself.” The reason for this is because the actual assault is shorter lived than the aftermath of the assault. The individual will constantly think about the assault after it happened and would have to constantly keep telling people what happened and, in turn, keep reliving the same nightmare. To counter this, in 2015 she launched her website called Callisto, which is one of my stakeholders, and it is a digital sexual assault reporting system. Here, users are able to document details of their attacks and learn about reporting incidents directly to the university and law enforcement officials and in addition, search for resources and support. If the victim isn’t ready to report their incident, they can archive their information and submit it when they’re ready. I feel this system is beneficial because it gives victims the ability to report incidents at their ‘fingertips’ sort-to-speak and they do not have to talk to someone one-on-one if they do not feel comfortable doing so.

My second stakeholder involved with sexual violence is End Rape on Campus (EROC) with their mission being to end rape on college campuses worldwide and providing direct support for survivors and their communities. They believe that a way to prevent or reduce sexual violence is through education. Their direct support includes support networks, filing federal complaints, and overseeing student activists. Most importantly, EROC supports fair and equitable sexual assault by statewide affirmative consent standards, and federal accountability for Title IX and the Clery Act.

Another stakeholder involved with sexual violence is SafeB.A.E (Before Anyone Else). Interestingly this organization was survivor-founded and the mission is to end sexual assault among both middle school and high school students. They help promote ending by sexual violence by giving teens the resources to become activists and raising awareness when it comes to dating violence, both sexual harassment and assault, what consent is, how to be a good bystander in these types of situations, survivor care, and all the rights provided under Title IX. Some of the goals for this organization include engaging all students to take part in the solution by using art, activism, and especially social media. Most importantly, they provide and promote consent education legislation in every state.

According to the Washington Post, Brown University and University of Connecticut both had 43 rapes take place on the main campuses in 2014 which was the most rapes taken place compared to every other school. Having Callisto, EROC, and SafeB.A.E as resources, can significantly reduce the amount of rapes occurring because it can educate people on how to prevent sexual violence and how to get involved if an individual witnesses a sexual assault taking place.

Some non-legal options that have been made to help victims get through sexual assault include a 24/7 rape crisis hotline, victim witness assistance, center for women and community rape crisis services, and RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network).

The 24/7 rape crisis hotline gives victims the ability to call and discuss their recent sexual assault or an assault that occurred a long time ago. In addition this 24/7 hotline according to Mass.gov, provides “counseling, information, and referral, will go with survivors to hospitals and/or police stations 24/7, assist survivors in court, provide one-to-one counseling and support group counseling, [promote] primary prevention education, [and] professional training.” My cousin, who is also a legal studies major, works at a 24/7 rape crisis hotline and has spoken to countless victims about their recent attacks on college campuses and has helped many get through this traumatic time in their lives. She has told me that she went with the survivors to hospitals and police stations and even went to court with some of them. I did not know much about these hotlines and simply thought it was an outlet where a person can just talk about their recent assault but didn’t know how much this program truly provides. The Victim Witness Assistance is a program set up to help if the victim in the case goes to criminal court. If so, they will be assigned an advocate who will assist them through the whole criminal court process. The next program is the Center for Women & Community Rape Crisis Services which provides free and confidential crisis services for survivors of all genders in the Hampshire County and Five College Community. RAINN is a partnership of more than 1,100 local rape treatment hotlines that provides victims of sexual assault with free, confidential services around the clock. RAINN states that “out of every 1,000 rapes, 995 perpetrators will walk free. This statistic truly shocked me because the fact that out of 1,000 perpetrators, a single digit amount of people will be locked up for rapes.

While all of these organizations and non-legal options are very helpful in countering sexual violence and letting an individual’s voice be heard across the United States, for a victim who has been sexually harassed they may not want to call a 24/7 rape crisis hotline or report their case to the police. The reason for this is because if it’s a woman who has been sexually assaulted, she may not feel comfortable talking to a stranger about the traumatic event. The individual may want to have to go through the whole court process, and have feelings such as shame, embarrassment, or humiliation. Also, the individual may have little assurance that their attacker would be brought to justice. If underage drinking was involved when the sexual assault took place, the victim may not feel comfortable going forward with the process because they may feel that the case would just be classified as two individuals getting drunk and making an unsmart choice. To back this up, nearly 80% of women don’t report rape or sexual assault according to The Telegraph for the reasons listed.

There are punishments that have been set up and enforced on college campuses when dealing with sexual assault and violence but there aren’t that many specific ways to deal with Greek life sexual assault. I feel that there should be stricter laws enforcing a zero tolerance law for sexual assault involved with Greek life and focus on making laws and regulations directly targeting fraternities. A perfect way to jump start this process includes a nation-wide orientation program for all new students entering college which discusses the definition of sexual assault, stating that it is wrong and can be followed by strict punishments and how to properly report incidents of sexual assault either if you are the victim or have witnessed the incident occurring. To add on to this, I don’t feel that there should just be an orientation program set up for new students because I remember when I was at the new student orientation and I tended to get very distracted because they were projecting this message about sexual assault to 300 students at the same time. This is where I feel the methods colleges use to discuss sexual assault fall short. Instead of just having this one seminar during orientation, there should be multiple programs set up over the course of the year for non-Greek students and especially Greek-life affiliated students to discuss sexual violence and the ways that individuals can make a difference to counter it. Having multiple programs will significantly decrease, in my opinion, the statistics for sexual assault on college campus. While this may not be the best way, it is certainly a step in the right direction to have multiple seminars strictly enforcing anti-sexual violence.

From my personal experience with Greek life, the four general topics of loud noises, a dark scene, a lot of people, and heavy amounts of alcohol are all factual. My fraternity house has a decent size basement but does tend to fill up quickly. We can fit 150 people in there for maximum capacity and I have experienced how hard it is to get through the room to either go play a game of pong or just greet some of my friends. When trying to talk to people at the party, I just nod my head either vertically or horizontally because sometimes I just cannot hear what the girl or guy is trying to say to me. Obviously, girls are dancing with guys and making out on the dance floor but we haven’t had any issues of sexual violence directed at my fraternity. While my fraternity has a good reputation, there are some that do not. Some fraternities on campus have been shut down for sexual violence such as spiking girls’ drinks or rape. In addition, there are some fraternities that haven’t been shut down but have such a bad reputation that sororities have disaffiliated themselves from the fraternity. Even non-Greek life women have gotten this vibe from these specific fraternities and stay away because it is deemed a dangerous place for women. Our fraternity has a great reputation on campus and has a handful of girls show up to every party. I have witnessed and helped girls show up to the party near black out and we have a precaution to take them to the first floor with the girl’s friends and lay them across the couch and give them water.

One of the seminars we had involved a hazing lecture. Two mothers came in who lost their sons due to fraternity hazing. Toxic masculinity played a huge role in their deaths. One student named Tim Piazza from Pennsylvania State University was being hazed during a fraternity-sponsored event where he consumed a heavy amount of alcohol (18 drinks in less than 90 minutes according to a surveillance video) and then was left alone and fell down a flight of stairs causing traumatic brain injury. This was the result of his death at the age of 19. Eight members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity were charged with involuntary manslaughter. The other mother discussed how her son, Maxwell Gruver, dying after being found unresponsive at the Phi Delta Theta house at Louisiana State University. The fraternity event was called “Bible Study” which was a ritual at this fraternity. The pledges were forced to drink if they answered specific questions about the fraternity wrong. Gruver’s BAC was .495 at the time of his death. Ten people, eight of which enrolled at LSU, were arrested and charged with hazing and faced charges of negligent homicide. This lecture was very depressing to listen to and I feel that the 300+ Greek-life affiliated students in the lecture hall truly got the message. These mothers are considered activists and have made an impact visiting many schools sharing their son’s story about hazing. This has made a substantial impact among Greek-life students.

One can see that sexual violence is a pressing issue facing the United States as a whole but more specifically targeting Greek-life on college campuses. Toxic masculinity and hazing are a major factor to sexual violence. Toxic masculinity describes a male as a violent, unemotional, sexually aggressive, and describe the experience of this type of danger exciting. Hazing causes new members to feel submissive to their superiors and after becoming initiated causes them to stray away from submissiveness and sometimes leads them to be unemotional, violent individuals which can lead to sexual violence. Hazing is another pressing issue mainly affiliated with Greek life. The two mothers who came in to share the stories about the deaths of both of their sons due to hazing is a perfect example of activism for countering hazing. Having organizations and selected individuals making it their missions to counter sexual violence across the country can make a big impact and could potentially lessen these frequent conflicts of sexual assault and hazing on college campuses.

Work Cited

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3. https://www.umass.edu/umpd/sexual-assault-resources
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6. http://el.lawroom.com/popup/Story.asp?STID=159
7. https://archive.attn.com/stories/3534/indiana-university-fraternity-hazing-sexual-assault
8. https://preview.abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/uva-shuts-fraternities-amid-sex-assault-investigation-27122781
9. https://www.rainn.org/
10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/06/07/these-colleges-have-the-most-reports-of-rape/?utm_term=.1feea7e8d163
11. http://nwvu.org/2018-sexual-assault-awareness-month-statistics-and-theme/
12. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/oct/21/fraternities-and-campus-sexual-assault-problem/
13. http://el.lawroom.com/popup/Story.asp?STID=159
14. https://endrapeoncampus.org/
15. https://www.safebae.org/
16. https://www.callistocampus.org/
17. https://www.umass.edu/umpd/sexual-assault-resources
18. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/rolling-stone-and-uva-the-columbia-university-graduate-school-of-journalism-report-44930/
19. http://time.com/5071813/fraternity-hazing-deaths-2017/
20. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9134799/Sexual-assault-survey-80-of-women-dont-report-rape-or-sexual-assault-survey-claims.html

You may think that hazing is a modern activity, yet it’s history can be traced back to the Greeks. Hazing is an activity that is seen as a type of ritual where a group of members force new coming members to endure in order to prove their commitment and loyalty to the existing members. It may seem harmless on the outside, but it can turn deadly fast. Most universities have banned hazing activities, states have even made it a felony but it still continues to this day.

Just because the universities have banned hazing, doesn’t mean they will stop. Fraternities and Sororities have carried out these age-old rituals since the establishment of their letter, and very few plan to stop. Psychologists believe that hazing can only be eliminated through improving school culture and unity of students by creating a sense of community. The law seems to think otherwise, “In 2012 Congresswoman Fredrica Wilson introduced legislation that would have made the activity of hazing a federal offence, but that effort was unsuccessful.” – Journalist’s Resource, Denise Marie Ordway. Efforts have been made to make hazing a more punishable crime, but most have failed.

Since the 1950’s, 88 hazing related deaths have been reported. That number may seem small but each of these deaths were unnecessary. “Another student has died due to hazing. Research shows that there has been numerous deaths in the US since 1954. (with the exception of 1958) So why does hazing continue to happen? Hazing is unacceptable, but criminalizing it may cause more problems than a solution.” – The Conversation, Hank Nuwer. Hazing will not stop just by criminalizing it, it will still continue and become even more secretive and dangerous.

Some believe that hazing is just a simple traditional ritual carried out year by year, but when a death is caused things are reconsidered and questioned. Sororities and Fraternities see hazing as solidifying to their brothers/sisters and new potential members. “The attraction of hazing probably extends beyond the dictates of tradition, forging bonds through shared, secretive experiences. The rituals are thought to strengthen the group by proving the devotion of newcomers but also by helping to create a sense of loyalty.”- Rampo College of New Jersey, Anne Merano. When carried out responsibly, hazing would be a fantastic bonding experience for all members, but it’s just too dangerous because they simply push the limit beyond its boundaries.

Despite hazings honest intent, it’s still much too dangerous to participate in. Membership to a group is not worth a life. Even though hazing rituals are traced back to Greek times, that does not mean it’s safe or ethical by any means. Many new college students crave the feeling of acceptance and some would even say that they will do anything to feel accepted, but is acceptance of new friends really worth a life?

Resources

1. Denise Marie Ordway from Journalist’s Resource: 2013 journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/problems-college-hazing-resource.org
2. Anne Merano from Rampo College of New Jersey: March 6, 2014 https://www.rampo.edu/law-journal-/thesis/effects-hazing-student-self-esteem-study-hazing-practices-greek-organizations-state-college/
3. Hank Nuwer, Franklin College from The Conversation:Articles on Hazing ; October 16, 2017 https://www.theconversation.com/us/topics/hazing-40731

With a fighting force denoted as the world’s strongest force compromised of both male and female soldiers, along with the amount of Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) training given. Why is SHARP increasing dramatically year by year in the army? Within the fiscal year of 2018 the percentage of females reporting sexual assault rose from 4.3 percent (which was reported two years prior) to 6.2 percent, while the number of reports by a male stayed relatively the same at .7 percent, thus meaning about 13,000 woman and 7,500 men experienced some type of contact or penetrative sexual assault. That is an increase of 5,600 cases within a period of two years (Department of Defense, Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military). In this essay I will be discussing why sexual assaults still occur in the military, does training reduce or not reduce the risk of sexual assault and harassment, and how do we as an organization end sexual violence.

The most common question throughout my time in service is why does sexual assault occur? There are many ways to answer this question, but I will start with not every victim is responsible for sexual violence happening. Most commonly the perpetrator will always feel entitled and will use their power and control to commit sexual violence (Lisak, 2003). We more commonly see that the perpetrator whether it being male, or female has a sense of inequality towards the other gender, meaning they may have less respect or have no regard for the victim. A lot of times people make excuses to justify why sexual assaults occur, with gender inequality being the main point. This however is the wrong way to go about this because the gender inequality stereotype is way misrepresented. The stereotype is often more pointed towards male on female, and rarely spoken of as female on male or male on male vis versa. In the Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military for Fiscal year 2018 we can see that more reports are generating from active duty females between the age group of 17 to 24, but could this be because males are more susceptible to not reporting a sexual assault incident. This is because men often see an act of sexual violence as hazing, bullying, physical abuse or just an act to humiliate, rather than being an act of sexual harassment or assault. With Department of Defense (DOD) reports showing 27 percent of males considering an incident as hazing, and 39 percent characterized it as bullying.

The next question that I will answer is what is the importance of SHARP training, and does or does it not reduce the risk of sexual assault and harassment? The importance of SHARP training is to be informative and help soldiers understand what actions can or cannot be a form of harassment or assault. It also outlines what actions are forms of sexual violence. The main purpose of conducting SHARP training annually is to try and eliminate the amount of cases, as well as ensuring every service member feels a sense of respect and dignity. When SHARP training is taught in a creative way rather than be a cut and dry death by power point it seems to be more effective and grab the soldier’s attention. If the training is taught by power point slide it often becomes over repetitive, meaning that more service members are susceptible to not paying attention.

We must ask ourselves how we as an organization can put an end to sexual violence. With the military constantly growing and developing and females making up the minority of the armed forces, I believe that as female soldiers continue to enlist into the military it greatly lowers the risk of sexual violence. The military is constantly evolving for example females now allowed in combat arms, making up a small percentage of combat arms females are greatly needed to change the dynamics and culture of our military. Changing dynamics will lessen number of cases and reports. Females are rising in our rank’s day by day, for example: Air Force General Janet Wolfenbarger making history as the second woman to rise to the rank of four star general.

In this essay I have discussed why sexual assaults occur in the military, whether training does anything to reduce sexual assault and harassment, and how an organization can put an end to sexual violence. With SHARP being the most well-known acronym within each soldier’s military service, the decrease in sexual violence is greatly needed. As Americas strongest fighting force our focus needs to be more oriented to fighting and winning wars instead of having to fight the rise of sexual violence within our organizations. The training is provided, and the knowledge is given so there is no exception for negligence by soldiers towards SHARP.