12 Sad Stories of Hazing Gone Wrong

Cornell University

In 2011, George Desdunes died after a hazing prank went wrong. The SAE pledge from Cornell was bound and asked trivia questions about the fraternity. If he got an answer wrong, he had to slam a shot of vodka. After passing out, Desdunes was carried back to his room, where he never woke up.

California Polytechnic State University

In 2010, Carson Starkey, a freshman pledging SAE at California Polytechnic State University, drank a lot of liquor while his frat brothers chanted, “Puke and rally!” Carson subsequently passed out. Fearing arrest, the frat brothers placed him on a mattress at his house, where he died. (The New York Times)

Florida A&M University

In 2011, 13 fellow students from Florida A&M University’s elite Marching 100 band beat drum major Robert Champion on a bus so badly that he went into hemorrhagic shock and died. The terrible irony is that Champion was crusading against the hazing that took place. Fourteen arrests were made and it would “expose a violent culture in the band that had festered for years.” (Orlando Sentinel) Dates for a trial are still being discussed. The band was suspended for one year, the band director retired, and Florida Governor Rick Scott ordered all state universities to examine their hazing policies.

More recently, on Sept. 4, 2012, the university suspended a student dance group (Torque Dance Team) after receiving a tip that members were involved in an off-campus hazing incident. No word on what the hazing entailed.

Andover High School

In 2011, two basketball players from Andover High School in Andover, Mass., were expelled after making underclassmen play the game “ookie cookie,” where the loser was forced to eat a semen-soaked Oreo cookie.

California State University Chico

In 2005, Matthew Carrington died while pledging Chi Tau during “Hell Week.” He was forced to do calisthenics, push-ups and answer trivia for hours in a basement with leaked raw sewage. Over a door it was written, “In the basement nobody can hear you scream.” According to NPR, he drank over and over from a five-gallon water jug, urinated and vomited on himself, and finally had a seizure. He died from water intoxication. His death prompted Matt’s Law, which allows felony prosecution for serious hazing abuse in the state of California.

Tulane University

In 2008, pledges at Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house were repeatedly burned with hot water, cayenne pepper and vinegar during a “Hell Night” ritual. According to CNN, two pledges were treated for severe burns. One had second and third-degree burns on his back, chest, buttocks and genitals. Ten fraternity members face felony battery charges, punishable up to 15 years in prison. The fraternity is also no longer recognized by the university. However, per Inside Hazing, the district attorney’s office dismissed the case without comment, leaving only a federal personal injury lawsuit.

Methodist University

According to the Associated Press, in 2002, five football players and two others were arrested for holding down a freshman player in a locker room while wide receiver Antonio Wilkerson sodomized him with a Sharpie marker.

Sorority Hazing

According to Alexandra Robbins, who wrote “Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities,” a girl named Akira had to answer trivia questions and drink vodka when she got a question wrong. “They were also presented with a sharpie, a knife, a hammer and a dildo and the sisters said if they got enough wrong they would be violated with one of those four.” (ABC News) Alexandra also reported that the worst kind of emotional hazing she saw among sororities was “boob ranking,” where the sisters forced pledges to strip and line up in order of breast size. Adding to this is “circle the fat” where pledges stand in their underwear and allow their “sisters” to circle the parts of her body that need improvement. “Mean Girls,” anyone?

University of Vermont

In 1999, a local hockey player named Corey LaTulippe tried out for the Vermont men’s hockey team. He later sued the school due to hazing. He alleged that freshmen were forced to drink shots of liquor by passing them to each other mouth-to-mouth and to perform the “elephant walk,” where men walk naked in physical contact with each other while holding on to each others' genitals.

Yale

In 2010, Yale became the subject of a federal Title IX investigation -- a complaint that could cost the university $500 million in federal funds -- after a group of students accused the school of creating a hostile environment for women. Pledges of the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon paraded near Old Campus chanting “No means yes! Yes means anal!” and “My name is Jack, I’m a necrophiliac, I f--- dead women.” Some students were blindfolded while being led in a line. (Yale Daily News) Afterwards, the fraternity apologized to the Yale Women’s Center, but it wasn’t enough to stop the investigation.