The Rules of Hazing

 

If you had met me back in my college days, I guarantee you wouldn’t have found me to be the most likable person. I rarely went to class and cared little about going. I was an undeclared student and made no attempts at trying to figure out what I wanted my major to be. I just didn’t want to go at all. It was my mother who forced me into going. She wanted me to get an education and do something, anything, with my life.

Halfway through the semester, my first roommate dropped out. The second one was a little too unstable for my tastes and I immediately requested someone else. That’s how I came to know Paul.

Paul was a chill dude. He was well known around the campus and popular. And while we got along well, I wouldn’t exactly refer to him as my friend. We were simply acquainted with one another.

Sigma Tau Sigma was one of the many fraternities that operated on our campus. I couldn’t stand them. They were arrogant and they were elitist bastards. No one was ever good enough to be in their frat, unless the price was right.

Sigma Tau Sigma was well known around the university for their brutal hazing practices. Many of their prospective members ended up dropping within the first week.

I overheard a guy in my chemistry class tell a peer about his Sigma Tau Sigma pledging horror story. He was assaulted with billiard balls and ended up with broken ribs as a result. Another guy was left with a nasty concussion. One of the baseball players had his collegiate career cut short due to a knee injury from pledging on year. The list went on and on.

The university administration turned a blind eye to the fraternity’s heinous activities. A lot of the fraternity’s alumni were wealthy and powerful of society. As long as they kept making hefty contributions to the school, the administration continued turning a blind eye.

Sigma Tau Sigma’s hazing was so brutal and vicious that it earned them the moniker “The Frat from Hell.”

So, when Paul confided in me about pledging that fraternity, I tried my hardest to talk him out of it.

“It’s not worth it. You need to drop out. Now!” My pleas of concern fell on deaf ears.

“I just have to make it one more week.” Paul was determined to make it through the choppy storm. He needed Sigma Tau Sigma, their connections, and the opportunities that came with being a part of their social circle. “I’ll be okay. I’ve made it through worse.” Paul revealed to me that he and his family had immigrated from South Sudan. He told me about the horrors of war he had experienced as well as overcame.

Dalton, Sigma Tau Sigma’s president, was one of my psychology course classmates. One day in class, I overheard him bragging about the brutal hazing he had in store for his pledges on Hell Night. “We’ve upped the ante this year.” He boasted like the deranged psychopath he was.

Before I knew it, I had sucker punched him in the side of his jaw. “What the absolute fuck is wrong with you people?! How can you sit here and take pleasure in the torture and suffering of other people? Your fraternity is going to burn to the ground one day.” Dalton deserved a lot more than a sucker punch.

And he got it too. It just wasn’t from me.

In the days leading up to Hell Night, I saw Paul less and less. In our last conversation, I begged him to stop while he was ahead. Paul, with a defeated look in his eyes, told me, “I can’t… I’m almost there… I’m worthy. I’ll make them see.”

The morning following Hell Night, a chorus of screams and shrieks echoed across the campus. I looked outside and saw a massive group of people gathered on the Quad.

Quickly, I threw on some clothes and bolted downstairs. “What’s-what’s going on?” I asked the woman in front of me.

She turned around slowly; there was a horrified expression on her face. “There’s a dead body hanging from the tree.” For some reason, I had a terrible sensation in my stomach. Immediately, I pushed my way to the front.

It was Paul. Around his neck was a large sign that read, “SIGMA TAU SIGMA made me do it.”

I was haunted by that scene for the rest of my young adult years.

 

Paul’s family would come to collect his things two hours later. I made sure all his belongings were boxed up and ready for his parents.

While I was clearing Paul’s bedside nightstand, I came across a journal he kept. It wasn’t right of me to go through it, but I was curious to know if there was something that could help me better understand why Paul had taken his life.

As I had already expected, Paul described in horrific detail the physical, emotional, and psychological abuse he and the other pledges were subjected to at the hands of the fraternity. Despite proving his worth to the fraternity and enduring their cruel hazing for weeks on end, the fraternity wasn’t going to extend its membership to Paul.

Paul “just didn’t fit their standards.” A.k.a., they didn’t like the idea of someone from a Blue-Collar family joining their elite and exclusive social circle. That sent Paul over the edge. I believed that’s why he ended up taking his life.

But that was only half of Paul’s revenge against Sigma Tau Sigma. His pain and humiliation became the ruin of the fraternity. Secretly, Paul managed to bring the depraved acts of Sigma Tau Sigma to light. He secretly recorded all the brutal hazing acts done against him and the others, which somehow made their way to the internet.

Unfortunately, none of the Sigma Tau Sigma members were ever charged for their crime against the pledges. They got off easy given their families access to powerful attorneys.

Even so, their reputation was forever tarnished by their diabolical actions.

The chapter at our university was kicked off and banned from ever operating on campus again. Several more universities and colleges across the country followed suit by banning Sigma Tau Sigma on their campuses. No amount of money from the fraternity could extinguish the raging fires of the backlash they received from the public.

Once I finished the semester, I withdrew from the university. Every time I saw that tree on the quad, I kept picturing Paul’s lifeless body swinging back and forth in the early morning breeze. It was too traumatic for me to handle. There was no going back after Paul’s death. For me and for Sigma Tau Sigma.

With his dying breath, Paul damn well made sure of that. 

 

 Photo credit: https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/young-african-american-man-holding-a-banner-with-a-confident-expression-on-smart-gm1043958626-279430842