Hazing in a sense bullying, it’s the persecution and harassment of its new members, and viewed upon as a ‘rite of passage’, by giving them meaningless, difficult, dangerous or humiliating tasks to perform, exposing them to ridicule, or playing practical jokes on them, something like giving someone a toothbrush and expecting then to clean the showers, or perhaps pointing out how small or large their manhood may be.   Putting, holly leaves, rose-stems, broken glass or simply dog or human shit inside their bed, or hanging a bucket of urine over a doorway, so they get covered by the other members of the fraternity’s piss, - whom jointly filled the bucket up in the first place.   These are just some milder examples of the kinds of things that have taken place. ^[1]

     Hazing is a crime in 44 states, and most educational institutions have their own definitions of what hazing is, though prohibitions against it. ^[1] While hazing is commonly associated with Greek letter fraternities, it’s also present in other college and university communities, as well as among football and rugby clubs, or other athletic teams and groups, and particularly so in the military, and where Deepcut Barracks in the UK comes to mind.  Hazing also used to be prevalent in initiation ceremonies among the groups of the emergency services here in the UK, but following bad publicity in the early 80’s, it’s apparently ceased.

     I was brought up in this kind of culture and have seen both sides of the coin.  It’s quite easy to go along with it, and in the frenzy of it all, it can and does many a time get out of control and especially so when alcohol and drugs are involved. 

     One of my first jobs not long after leaving school, so I was around 16 years old, - was working in a rag and bone yard, in Brick Lane Market, Bethnal Green, London.  It was a family run business and the three brothers of my boss would love ganging up on me, at one time they put me on a forklift truck, raised the forks 30ft in the air, locked up the yard and went home, whilst leaving me suspended in midair.  It’s not easy getting back down unscathed, believe me.  Another trick, which is short of a form of toture and bloody petrifying, - was that there imbedded into the floor, was a 10ft chamber/shaft, that was 4ft x 3ft, that had an hydraulic press of the same size raised above it.  The chamber would be filled with old clothes and rags, and when completely full, compressed down to 3ft thick bails of rags that would then be ready to be secured with wire.  On more than one occasion I was thrown down into the chamber and press turned on.  I’m now 2ft shorter than I normally should be! Only joking, but the experience used to shit the life out of me.  

     I ran a shoeshine business in the 1980’s, and at times, and for some reason or another, and as a form of initiation or punishment, we’d pull down the trousers and then underpants of the victim, then dye their penis and testicles, either bright red, brown, black, dark navy or shocking pink, using a leather dye, - it impregnates the skin and lasts for months, and is a sod to remove. 

     At times, hazing has got so out of hand, some people have been killed, and many suicides aka ‘fraticides’ have resulted because the pressure of continuous hazing has been too much for certain people to bear, and especially so with youngsters, and the reason there are so many attempted and successful suicides inside young offenders units and prisons.  And it is because of such practices, it’s often been often cited as one of the most harmful aspects of Greek letter fraternities and poses a major threat to their ongoing existence.  Which I think is a good thing, but isn’t going to happen, unless you can also ban Freemasonry, because as I say, these fraternities are the kindergartens of the Freemasons.      

     It must be said many educational institutions have developed anti-hazing programs, and it’s discouraged by the universities themselves as much as they possibly can, - though mainly because far too many times, it has either resulted in embarrassing consequences for the university, and, or legal action has been taken against them on other occasions.  Though due to the nature of hazing, which as I say, is basically another term for bullying, and because the secretive nature of these fraternities, hazing goes largely underreported, - after all, how would you feel being a 18 or 20 year old, and having to admit your being bullied?

    The various kinds of hazing activities also take place either during; rush week, the pledge, during rituals or the initiations themselves, which are of course always held in secret.  Also since many Greek letter fraternities, such as those governed by the IFC, NPHC, NALFO and NMGC which governs fraternities with interest of Asian, South Asian and multicultural ethnic backgrounds, prohibit their pledges - also known as ‘interests, prospects’ and ‘new members’ - from revealing their association with their fraternity until after they have been initiated - also known as ‘ghost pledging’, so therefore its rather difficult for universities to reach out to members in anti-hazing/bullying efforts, and it becomes virtually impossible for these ‘pledges’, ‘prospects’ or ‘interests’ to reach out for help, without being branded a grass, snitch or tell tale, and possibly face even more repercussions as a result.

Examples of Hazing

     According to hazingprevention.org, 1.5 million high school students are ‘hazed’ each year; 47% of students came to college already having experienced hazing.  55% of college students involved in clubs, teams and organisations experience hazing.  Alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sexual acts are hazing practices common across all types of student groups. ^[2] As I’ve said, various levels of hazing range from a whole array of tactics, from the very subtle to the most outrageous.

     Here’s a list of the sorts of things: Deception; assigning demerits for deficiency or misconduct, thus issuing fatigues as a kind of punishment.  Silence periods, either where they’re not allowed to speak, or totally ignored by other members, often with implied threats for violation, and deprivation of privileges etc. Requiring new members to perform duties not assigned to other members. Socially isolating new members/rookies, line-ups and drills/tests on meaningless information. ^[3] Name calling, verbal abuse in general, requiring new members to refer to other members with titles - e.g. Mr, Miss, Boss or Sir, while they’re identified with demeaning terms – e.g. slave, scumbag or arsehole etc.  Expecting certain items to always be in one’s possession, - threats or implied threats, - asking new members to wear embarrassing or humiliating attire, - stunt or skit nights with degrading, crude, or humiliating acts taking place, - requiring new members to perform personal services to other members, ^[3] and what is termed has ‘fagging’ in the UK, such as carrying books, running errands, cooking, making beds, cleaning etc.,

     Sexual simulations, or real, buggery was very common practice among public schools, borstals and prisons, and it still goes on today, but like many things, as such it goes unreported, as after all what grown man wants to admit his been gang raped, and anyhow, when it’s been done to him, he’s now initiated and ‘one of them, and he too will now be encouraged to bugger the next new initiate.  Many are deprived of maintaining a normal schedule of bodily cleanliness, - be expected to harass others members, and potentially cause physical and/or emotional, or psychological harm. 

     Forced or coerced to drink alcohol or other drug consumption, vast volumes of water, or the ingestion of vile substances or other concoctions, such as urine, bleach, vomit etc. - Beating, paddling, or other forms of assault, - including be urinated on, defecated on, burning and branding with heated implements, such as cigarettes, candles and lighters.  Expecting abuse or mistreatment of animals, - public nudity, committing illegal activities, bondage, acts of abduction and kidnappings, to the exposure to extreme cold weather or extreme heat without appropriate protection. ^[2][3]

     I belonged to a boys club, specifically set-up for under privileged working class kids, and I went to one of the most roughest and toughest of all-boys secondary schools in East London, where stabbings, beatings and the most violent of acts took place regularly, whether inside or out of school, were some women teachers were sexually molested, and even raped.  We all seemed to be a bit crazy, the more violent you were, the more respect you got, it was as simple as that.  Some kids would have their teeth kicked out, and had to lie to their own parents and say it happened playing football or rugby, or they had stupidly fell over.  Coins would be tossed onto the tarmac of the playground, the words; “Bundle” and “Scramble” would be shouted out, and between 20 to 30 kids would start kicking and punching the fuck out of each other, - even those who didn’t want to be part of it, were forcibly pushed into the direction of the scrum, and slapped about and beaten.   Some of the nastier types, would creep up from behind, and without anyone noticing, would stab some of the kids in the cheeks of their arse, using a small penknife or playing dart.

     Another trick that was done by the older boys in our ‘gang’, was to get some lads to slide down a washing line pole, – which had a double sided hook attached midway down it, and where the line would be lashed around to keep the line up.  This pole, was close to a 8ft high wall, - the objective was to jump from the wall onto the pole, and then slide down it like a fireman, those who knew what was going to happen, jumped off the pole before sliding down it too far, - though others who never had done it before, would slide all the way down it.  The hook which couldn’t really be noticed from the top of the wall, would normally hit you at the base of your testicles, and hurt your groin in general.  On one occasion when I was there, a kid had his bollocks ripped to pieces, the hook went deep into his ball-sack and tore the flesh wide open.

     40% of athletes who reported being involved in hazing behaviours report that a coach or advisor was aware of the activity; 22% report that the coach was ‘involved’.  As was the case with us at school or away on the weekends, in fact it was more of a case that the coach’s or helpers were directly involved.  2 in 5 students say they are aware of hazing taking place on their campus, and more than 1 in 5 report that they witnessed hazing personally, though in 95% of cases where students identified their experience as hazing, they did not report the events to campus officials.  As of 12th February 2010, the number of recorded hazing/pledging/rushing-related deaths in fraternities and sororities in the US stood at 96 - ninety were males, and six females, and where 82% of deaths from hazing involve alcohol. ^[2]

^{Extract from Trapped in a Masonic World - http://www.trappedinamasonicworld.co.uk}

[1] "fraternity: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com." http://www.answers.com/topic/fraternity .

[2] "University of Dayton - Student Development." http://www.udayton.edu/studev/leadershipdev/fraternity_sorority_lif... .

[3] "DePauw University Office of Fraternity & Sorority Life." http://www.depauw.edu/student/greek/HazingExample.asp.