![]() ![]() The fraternity's national chapter was involved in their own investigation and said there would be repercussions. The frat was put on interim suspension in mid-October. "In these situations, there's not really a way for them to say no." "The upperclassmen were pressuring new members to do this," she says. ![]() Consistently, they told investigators that they didn't know where the underage members got the alcohol they were drinking.īut despite what they may have said, MacKay says new fraternity members still were pressured into drinking. "There's the door," for anyone who chose not to, one member said. Nearly all the fraternity members initially told investigators that nobody was forced to drink. He said the "definition of hazing has become muddy." Even a couple victims told university investigators that they didn't feel like it was hazing. One investigator noted that a member "didn't think what we were doing was wrong," that it was "not meant with malicious intent," and instead was supposed to be about teaching accountability. WSU officials interviewed dozens of people in its investigation. Initially, members said they didn't feel like any of it was hazing, records show. In early October, days before WSU launched their investigation of hazing, a new fraternity member, after drinking, fell out of his bed and got a concussion. In another incident, a new member had his finger burned by an upperclassman's lighter used to illuminate the dark party room, according to records. They were told to finish all three bottles between the two of them.Īt least once, the upperclassmen dumped out bean bags and made the new members clean all of it up while taped to one other person. Each person had another bottle taped to their free hand. When they did "Edward Forty-Hands," one new member reported that his hand was taped to another member's hand with a bottle in between. Many of the incidents alleged to be hazing took place in what the frat called the "party room." There, records say, new members were lined up against the wall and yelled at, forced to do wall sits and finish bottles of beer. The upperclassman took him to the hospital, and the new member was released by early the next morning. (In the records provided to the Inlander through a public records request, names of students were redacted.) The upperclassman walked into the bathroom, according to the upperclassman's account of the incident, and found the new member "flopping" around, "vomiting and throwing his upper body around while staying seated." 20, the last night of rush week - when fraternities recruit students - one upperclassman at AKL heard about a new member who was sick. "This was clearly hazing," MacKay tells the Inlander. MacKay says what was concerning was that upperclassmen pressured new, underage members into drinking and they used physical restraint. In December, days before the fraternity was shuttered, members "admitted to everything," she says. Those initial allegations were all confirmed to be true, WSU dean of students Kathy MacKay says. The investigative records also described how the fraternity would take the belongings of new members and force them against the wall to berate them, force them to do wall sits, or tape alcohol to their hands for them to drink. Two new fraternity members had been hospitalized - one in August 2017 for alcohol poisoning, and one in October with a concussion. The university, in October, began investigating several incidents that took place starting near the beginning of the first semester. Until now, the specifics of the alleged hazing have not been made public. The investigation, by the university and the fraternity's national headquarters, eventually led to the frat being shut down in December. The alleged incident described above is one of several allegations of hazing at the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity found in WSU student conduct records obtained by the Inlander. It was a game they called " Edward Forty-Hands." Forty-ounce bottles of Hurricane malt liquor were tied to their hands.įinish the bottles, the members were told, and they'd be let off the wall. On one October night last fall, the newest members of the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity at Washington State University were allegedly told to line up in the "party room," with their knees and noses touching the wall. WSU's Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity, which has been shut down.
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