Hazing Hurts!

Did you know this week is National Hazing Prevention Week? This is a very important cause, especially to those of us involved in Greek Life and athletics, where hazing most commonly occurs. Most of us are familiar with the term hazing, but more than likely there are a lot of details you don’t know about hazing. Here are some facts from hazingprevention.org.

Hazing is - Any action taken or situation created intentionally:

• that causes embarrassment, harassment or ridicule
• risks emotional and/or physical harm
• to members of an organization or team, whether new or not, regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.

Hazing is more common than you may think, too. Check out these stats from hazingprevention.org:

• 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experience hazing.
• Alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sexual acts are hazing practices common across all types of student groups.
• 2 in 5 students say they are aware of hazing taking place on their campus. More than 1 in 5 report that they witnessed hazing personally.
• In 95% of cases where students identified their experience as hazing, they did not report the events to campus officials.
• 9 out 10 students who have experienced hazing behavior in college do not consider themselves to have been hazed.
• 36% of students say they would not report hazing primarily because “there’s no one to tell,” and 27% feel that adults won’t handle it right.
  
• As of November 1, 2007, the number of recorded hazing/pledging/rushing-related deaths in fraternities and sororities stands at 89 – 83 males and 6 females.
  
• 82% of deaths from hazing involve alcohol.
• In more than half of the hazing incidents, a member of the offending group posts pictures on a public web site.

Scary stuff, right? So what can you or your Greek chapter do to help? Here are some ideas:

• Spread the word. Just talking about hazing and it’s dangers gets the message out there. Make posters and put them up around school. Host an event about hazing. Tell a story about hazing gone wrong. Do a speech about or write a paper about hazing.
  
• Research. 44 States in the United States have laws against hazing. Find out if your state is one of them.
• Ask questions. If you are considering joining any kind of organization that might haze, ask. If you don’t get a straight answer, that may mean they support hazing but don’t want you to know.
  
• Encourage others to join the fight against hazing. Maybe get students to sign a non-hazing pledge at your school.
  
• Join Hazing Prevention’s facebook group or follow them on twitter.
  

Need more ideas? Hazing Prevention has tons of ideas here in their store.

Hazing is serious, and very scary. Even scarier is that it could happen to you or someone you know, as it is still widely supported. Join the fight against hazing, and know that you could have saved a life just by spreading the word.

Patrice is an intern with College Lifestyles (TM). She is a journalism major at William Woods University and is a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

“Be who you are and say what you mean, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”- Dr. Seuss

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