Youth is hard. As a result, young people can be kind of terrible. But, when you take a pack of the male variety of those kind of terrible young people and throw them in a house together with little supervision and a lot of booze they can be REALLY terrible.
Do you think we’re being harsh? Well, here are some things that fraternity members have done that have come to light — JUST in the last 30 days.
Spit On Veterans (& Their Dogs)
According to Florida news station WFTV, the members of the University of Florida's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity insulted and spat on wounded military veterans — including a vet and his dog — vacationing at the same beach resort as the frat brothers. They also reportedly peed on an American flag, threw things off balconies, and insulted the veterans' wives. Kent Fuchs, President of the University of Florida, has already apologized to the group that brought the veterans to the Panama City resort and promised a full investigation. The fraternity was already on probation over hazing incidents. Practically Beat Each Other To Death
If reports of frat members physically degrading disabled war veterans aren't enough for you, a former student at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island filed a lawsuit against Tau Kappa Epsilon for hazing him so badly in the fall of 2014 that he had to be hospitalized for a month and get skin grafts. Not only did Terrance Bennett suffer the beatings and insults that have become routine for fraternity and sorority hazing, but according to the suit, he was also burned with cigarettes, pelted with rotten food, and forced to binge drink and go through grueling physical exercise. The school has since shut down the fraternity chapter.
Literally Waterboard Each Other
Over at North Carolina's Western Carolina University, a fraternity just got suspended for five years after a pledge said he had been "waterboarded." This isn't the first time the infamous torture technique has been used to initiate teenagers into the boys' club of frats — it happened at Binghamton University in New York, too.
Have Super-Offensive Parties
This month, a Clemson University frat was put on probation over a “Cripmas” party where students came dressed like they were in California gangs (instead of a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in South Carolina). While that’s the one we heard about this month, this sort of thing happens all the time. See the Duke’s “Asia Prime” party, ASU’s “thug party” and Randolph-Macon’s "U.S.A. vs. Mexico" soiree that asked guests to come as border patrol officers and chase around other guests dressed as “illegal immigrants.”
Teach Each Other Racist Songs (On Cruise Ships)
And, in case you thought the racist fraternity chant scandal at the University of Oklahoma had faded into the past, the university's president announced the results of an internal investigation into the fraternity at the end of March. That investigation found that the racist chant that members were caught doing on video was one they picked up on a leadership cruise sponsored by Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national organization. It's true that abusive, offensive behavior isn't limited to just fraternities. Sororities, college sports teams, professional sports teams, movie stars, and all sorts of groups do horrible things — and, of course, the majority of frat boys are surely great. But when examples crop up month after month, week after week, from the same type of organizations, they warrant a closer look.
Spit On Veterans (& Their Dogs)
According to Florida news station WFTV, the members of the University of Florida's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity insulted and spat on wounded military veterans — including a vet and his dog — vacationing at the same beach resort as the frat brothers. They also reportedly peed on an American flag, threw things off balconies, and insulted the veterans' wives. Kent Fuchs, President of the University of Florida, has already apologized to the group that brought the veterans to the Panama City resort and promised a full investigation. The fraternity was already on probation over hazing incidents. Practically Beat Each Other To Death
If reports of frat members physically degrading disabled war veterans aren't enough for you, a former student at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island filed a lawsuit against Tau Kappa Epsilon for hazing him so badly in the fall of 2014 that he had to be hospitalized for a month and get skin grafts. Not only did Terrance Bennett suffer the beatings and insults that have become routine for fraternity and sorority hazing, but according to the suit, he was also burned with cigarettes, pelted with rotten food, and forced to binge drink and go through grueling physical exercise. The school has since shut down the fraternity chapter.
Literally Waterboard Each Other
Over at North Carolina's Western Carolina University, a fraternity just got suspended for five years after a pledge said he had been "waterboarded." This isn't the first time the infamous torture technique has been used to initiate teenagers into the boys' club of frats — it happened at Binghamton University in New York, too.
Have Super-Offensive Parties
This month, a Clemson University frat was put on probation over a “Cripmas” party where students came dressed like they were in California gangs (instead of a Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity in South Carolina). While that’s the one we heard about this month, this sort of thing happens all the time. See the Duke’s “Asia Prime” party, ASU’s “thug party” and Randolph-Macon’s "U.S.A. vs. Mexico" soiree that asked guests to come as border patrol officers and chase around other guests dressed as “illegal immigrants.”
Teach Each Other Racist Songs (On Cruise Ships)
And, in case you thought the racist fraternity chant scandal at the University of Oklahoma had faded into the past, the university's president announced the results of an internal investigation into the fraternity at the end of March. That investigation found that the racist chant that members were caught doing on video was one they picked up on a leadership cruise sponsored by Sigma Alpha Epsilon's national organization. It's true that abusive, offensive behavior isn't limited to just fraternities. Sororities, college sports teams, professional sports teams, movie stars, and all sorts of groups do horrible things — and, of course, the majority of frat boys are surely great. But when examples crop up month after month, week after week, from the same type of organizations, they warrant a closer look.