Several weeks ago a fraternity was suspended at St. John's University, the school I attend. One of the pledges was allegedly subject to severe hazing. I don't believe the fraternity members meant to hurt the pledge this badly, it was probably a joke to them. But the fact is the victim is in the hospital on kidney dialysis, no laughing matter. As a pledge, the victim allegedly had to perform rigorous acts of conditioning such as walking down flights of stairs on his knees, doing push ups with people on his back, hold heavy objects for extended periods of time, and he was also supposedly beaten. Now these acts appear to be criminal in nature, especially the beatings, but there is an important question that must be answered before any legal action can be taken.

That question is if the pledge performed these acts on his own volition, or was once he decided to join this fraternity, was he forced to perform them. The immediate answer in my mind is he acted freely, although some investigation is needed. I say this because two other pledges dropped out on the second of five days of pledging. The victim stayed until the fourth. I don't see any logical reason that the fraternity would force this one person to stay in the fraternity, and allow the others to leave. The victims mother is saying her son felt he would be beaten even if he left the fraternity. It has been made clear that she wants some legal repercussions to follow, and I think she is saying this in order for the suspects to be arrested.

The fact of the matter is we will probably never know what happened. It's hard to blame the school for this, considering all of the acts of hazing took place off of school campus. I'm mostly shocked that the fraternity would subject people to this,even if they treated it as a joke. If the allegations are true this behavior is border line barbaric. I would think young adults would have some sense in them and understanding of the serious consequences that can and did occur. I mean it's not unreasonable to say that another day of pledging could have caused the victim to die. Hopefully this incident will open up people's eyes, namely those belonging to a fraternity, and this form of hazing will end.