Best of Busted!

Student hospitalized after hazing

A fraternity’s Wayne State University chapter [is under suspension] and could have its charter revoked following allegations that a 22-year-old pre-medical student was hazed so cruelly he wound up in a hospital for nearly two weeks.

[The student] claims he was required to go to a house in west Detroit for 32 consecutive days, where he says he was administered beatings that sometimes lasted several hours as part of his initiation to become a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

“They would hit me all over,” said [the student]. “They would have me recite information I’d learned about history or whatever, and see how I responded under pressure by hitting me with thick paddles and slamming my body with their hands.”

[The student’s] attorney said he plans to sue the fraternity for the medical bills incurred because of the beatings. The most severe thrashing, [he] said, occurred in the house on March 1, when allegedly dozens of fraternity members from across Michigan assaulted him. Walker said he also was forced to eat dog food.

Later that night, after he’d gone home, [the student] said he was horrified to see that his urine was red. A friend drove him to Annapolis Hospital in Wayne. [He] later was transferred to University Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he was treated for kidney failure, among other injuries. He remained in the hospital for 12 days.

In an interfraternal world where so many students are debating if those matching scrunchies they made their pledges wear are considered hazing, it seems like stories like these should be legends of a bygone era. Not so much.

For the love of Zeus, people. It’s 2010 and we’re still beating people? We’re still using paddles? It’s as if these men lived in the far reaches of Antarctica, not the metropolis of Detroit where surely cable television is available. Because there would have to be some serious ignorance for these men to not know that this is a bad idea. And let’s take a break from all the fraternal values talk for a moment and simply point out that BEATING someone – for any reason – is a bad idea. It’s other things, too. Criminal. Mean. Dangerous. Did we mention criminal?

So what we have here is an incredibly courageous college student who, after being beaten to the point of serious injury, stood up to a group of older men who were abusing their power all in the name of fraternity. We assure you, there is no rationale or reason that wouldn’t make us at Busted! gag. We don’t want to hear about earning letters, or understanding suffering, or any of that business. At the end of the day, these men – whoever they were – committed assault, in our opinion. And we have no time or patience or space for them in our fraternal community.