The Truth Behind Hazing In The United States

In 2010, at Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, a female student who was rushing the sorority was beaten so badly by paddles that she had to be taken to the hospital. When someone is rushing a sorority or fraternity, it just means they are trying to do what they are told by the already existing members to get accepted. In 2002, two pledges lost their lives by tragically drowning in the ocean in California at a beach trying to rush Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Another tragic story of hazing is when two former students at California Polytechnic State University, names Adam Marszal and Russell Taylor, were sentenced to jail after hazing a freshman who died of alcohol poisoning while pledging Sigma Alpha Epsilon. The freshman on eighteen years of age was tasked by these two former students to drink as much alcohol as possibly in ninety minutes. These stories are all different examples stories that fall under the category in which people categorize as hazing. My question for you all now is What is hazing? Now hazing a word we all, well most of us, have come across at least once in our lifetime, that being by a friend, teachers, boss, etc.. Since being founded, which goes back decades even centuries, hazing been defined differently by several different experts. Those definitions arise depending on the severity of the event and what event occur. Death by Hazing a book written by Devon Alvarez, at the end of the book, provides us with more than two dozen different definitions of hazing from different states. According to this book, the state of Alabama defines hazing as “a willful act on any educational premise that “recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health of any student” or any willful act on any educational premise by one person or a group of people assaulting or attempting to assault another student” (Alvarez, 63). On the same page in the same book Alvarez then gives the definition of hazing in the states Colorado which is an activity for the purpose of initiation into a student organization where one person endangers the health and safety of another or causes a risk of bodily injury. Even factors like the place or state a person lives and play a role as to defining what hazing is. In the article The Evolution of Hazing, the author defines hazing as the abuse of new or prospective group members (collectively, “newcomers”). According to the dictionary the definition of hazing is that it is the imposition of strenuous, often humiliating, tasks as part of a program of rigorous physical training and initiation. There are a variety of different types of hazing rituals and traditions, some brutal and others for fun, but no matter the type the end result is most of the times someone getting harmed whether it be mentally, emotionally or even physically. I believe that hazing should be illegal in every state in the U.S. because it can have a negative effect on everyone, cause problems within educational settings, be seen in several places throughout the workforce, and in some situations lead to death and be emotionally damaging on the victims and their families.

Hazing is a tradition that has been carried down for generations, in some cases can be very violent, and has the ability to affect all genders, ages, and races. In the beginning of this paper I told stories of hazing, all tragic, that showed a little of discrepancy of severity amongst the different genders. From the numerous sources i've seen it is pretty clear that hazing has been around for decades, even centuries. The one thing that seems to be unclear is knowing exactly where hazing originated from. Well it is reported to be seen all the way back in 387 B.C.E., the report said the back in that time Plato recorded and witnessed hazing like behaviors amongst the young boys he was teaching. The hazing that happened back then was amongst and between white male fraternity brothers. As the days go on, hazing is occurring more within other races and genders other than white men or boys. An example of a book that shows how hazing can be used in another race other than Caucasian is a book called Black Haze written by Ricky L. Jones. In this book he talks about how BGF’s are becoming worse and worse each day. Jones also mentions how the more vile BGF’s get, the more they are being seen in the United States media, public, etc. BGF’s stands for Black Greek Fraternities, which are basically just fraternities filled completely with African American men. Hazing not only happens to fraternity or sorority members, it could happen to non-Greek members too.

The non-Greek members may not experience as much hazing as those in a Greek affiliated group like fraternities and sororities. Hazing is typically started within a sorority, fraternity etc. By the first members or the oldest whom will pass it down to the next leaders within that community. Majority of the time a person who is taking part of hazing has had it done themselves. It is not a commonly known law and in some cases not taken as serious yet depending on what happened it can be classified in court as assault or even homicide and or assistance in homicide. In an articles called Wrong or Rite, one of the writers gives this story “There's the one about the cook who snuck pork into a Muslim co-workers staff meal, fully understanding that consuming it was a major prohibition of the man's religion”. This story goes to show how hazing could exceed affecting just race, gender, and age, but also get itself intertwined with people's religions.

Not every incident involved with hazing will be cause a negative effect or impact on their lives like homicide, assault, etc. on someone. For example, when people make it through “hell” week that are for the most part happy. Hell week is the final week of hazing that a hazee’s has to endure. A hazee is simply just the person who is being hazed. Not only is hell week the final week of hazing that a hazee has to go through, it is typically the week where the hazing gets intense and insane. Once the hell week is over and the hazee has completed all the intense tasks and rituals given by the hazer, they are usually accepted into the place that went through hell to get in too. The definition of a hazer is somebody who participates in the hazing of someone else.

Lana Brown says in her article, “Nurse hazing: a costly reality”, she states hazing in the school setting is described as “a complex social problem that is shaped by power dynamics” within a group or organization. She then goes on to say that the range of different varies of hazing can change. It can go from subtle hazing to violent hazing very quickly. Hazing has been reported in the United States since the 1600s when Oxford University students came to Harvard and introduced fagging and other hazing activities. Fagging meaning to work someone or something hard, especially by making them do tedious job or task. Some of the most horrific events or rituals of hazing that happen at schools tend to happen mostly at high schools, colleges, and universities. It is in fraternities and sororities at colleges or universities, where you will see the most hazing because the students here are more competitive at this level. According to the book Black Haze, “...military academy drop-outs introduced hazing practices into the colleges they later attended and, thus, played a leading role in the history of hazing on American college campuses”. Since theses hazing practices are seen to come from a military background, you can then piece together that these hazing rituals can be intense. Within these schools, there is the person who is trying to get within the sorority or fraternities, also known as the pledge. They are typically willing to do anything to be accepted in the community and prove how much they are willing to do. Some of these pledges are so willing that they are ready to risk their own lives to get in with the in crowd. It is also hazing within sports that is considered another one of the most effective things in the educational community. High schools hazing is almost just as bad as any other kind. Hazing would get so bad that they implemented rules and laws that had consequences if it occurred. For example, I played volleyball all four years of high school. Each year, the week before the volleyball season started, they made every team player sign a hazing form. It stated that if one of the player committed hazing upon another player, they would be kicked off of the team. It also depends on the severity of the hazing act, cause in some cases the student or students might be suspended from the school or expelled. Hazing within the sports community is a way to prove a team mates dedication to participation and it is actually getting worse in today's society. It shows dedication by the hazee being able to prove they can withstand numerous trials of hardships and tribulations for a long or short period of time. If you can prove that you have get through these times, it shows that you are more likely to succeed in the stressful environment. Schools are not the only environments that could be susceptible to dangerous hazing. If you take a close look into the workforce, you can find a couple of cases that involve hazing. It is in high class restaurants and the military where you will see it happening the most. There is an article out called Bullying and Hazing Among Norwegian Army Soldiers, which of course talks about hazing and bullying of Norwegian soldiers. Not only does this involve the military, a place you can work or call your job, but it also involves job that isn't in the United States. In the book Kristina Ostivil states that hazing occurs less than bullying there. In the United States I would think it is fair to say the it is quite similar. Most of the stories told by people at work are things similar to forms of bullying rather than hazing. Another field where you can find some occurrences of hazing would be the medical field. In one of the sources I found, they specifically talk about hazing amongst nurses. There are multiple cases within businesses where hazing has took place in, but a lot of employees are too afraid to speak up about it. Or they did not know that what exactly had happened to them was considered hazing and that there are laws in place to stop it. If a company/business does not know or has not had a past with hazing then they typically don't have to sign a hazing contract. Within the military hazing is commonly known and distributed. There are also incidents like in the trade publication Letters. The three authors state that in the jobs are working, which are mostly in the food industry, they haven't gotten a glimpse or been involved with hazing. In many situations hazing can lead to fatal outcomes.”

The increase over the last two decades in the number of deaths or serious injuries and subsequent litigation involving hazing activity should sound an alarm on college and university campuses”. That being death, alcohol poisoning, etc. In sororities and fraternities the pledges are sometimes given difficult and dangerous tasks to complete. Those tasks have led to the death of several pledge members. Those who have died or committed suicide due to hazing can leave a heavy toll on the hearts of their loved ones or close friends. Self-blame and shame take a tremendous role in the emotional damage that comes along with it. students who have suffered from hazing tend to have failing grades, severe depression, trauma, anxiety etc., this can typically lead to the victims having problems as an adult and with their mind development. Someone who has helped participate in hazing tend to have more self-blame and self-hatred once they have realized what happened is not only is it against the law but the outcome for the victim . There are also others don't really care in some cases especially if it is not there first time taking part in this act. It is emotionally damaging to both the hazer and the hazee. No matter what point of view you look at it. There are multiple cases where teens have been charged with murder and or assault which also leads to a lot of emotional damage to the hazers families. There's multiple people who actually didn't know that what they were doing and or had done to them is against the law which leads to misunderstandings, jail time, counseling etc. If a person has hazed before they also suffer from trauma just almost as bad as the hazee. Once again I believe that hazing should be banned in United States everywhere because it can harmfully impact people, disturb the lives of students or leave schools with bad reputation, can find its ways into jobs, have endings that are fatal, which can hurt the families and friends of the victims. Sadly, since hazing has been around in the United States for long and seem to be occurring more at a faster rate, it’ll be extremely hard to rid it completely out of our jobs, schools, etc.

Here are several ways to help prevent hazing occurring more here in the United States. One way is to make a law must (1) set forth a uniform definition for hazing, which should address physical and psychological hazing activities; (2) establish who may be found liable for a hazing incident; (3) define the level of the offense as either misdemeanor or felony, and establish the punishment for each level of offense; (4) set up a national advisory committee, and (5) require universities to report hazing incidents to a national database. Spreading the awareness of how dangerous hazing is and how it can truly hurt others will hopefully persuade others to stand up against it, which will hopefully in the end help to completely eradicate it or lessen to a point to where it’s no longer a negative affect towards anyone or people they know or that around them. If hazing is not put under control now, it will be almost impossible for us to stop or make it harder for us to rid it from the United States.