Hazing is “alive and well” a despite being banned by University of Alabama fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon a decade ago, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday alleging that a pledge suffered a traumatic head injury during an incident in Tuscaloosa last month.
SAE instituted the ban in 2014 after Bloomberg called it the “most deadly” fraternity in the country when it found at least 10 deaths linked to the fraternity from hazing, alcohol, and drugs between 2006 and 2013, AL.com reported.
The lawsuit, filed by the parents of the injured pledged — identified only as H.B. — said the 167-year-old fraternity, founded at the University of Alabama, said that “pledgeship and hazing are both alive and well, continuing as pervasive practices” at the original chapter in Tuscaloosa.
SAE’s national organization “turned a blind eye to hazing and pledgeship because the Local Chapter is the oldest undergraduate chapter, the founding chapter, has a powerful group of alumni, and holds a disproportionate amount of influence within the National Organization,” the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, H.B. — a double legacy pledge of the University of Alabama chapter — was told to report to the chapter house on August 14. When he refused to “snort a white powdery substance,” the lawsuit says, he was forced into the basement, where fraternity members blocked the exits and hit him in the face, head, stomach, and sides.
H.B. says he got from the basement to the front porch, where fraternity members forced him into a kiddie pool and ran a hose on him. Then they ordered him to yell a racial epithet “including at a Black student passerby. He refused.
Next, fraternity members turned a water hose on him directly in front of his face for about 30 seconds. One fraternity member allegedly threw a beer can at his head. Fraternity members also forced him to run exercise springs “while active members launched blunt objects at his legs.”
Finally, the lawsuit says, H.B. was forced to do pushups while one of the members threw a basketball at his head.
“H.B. lost consciousness, seeing stars, and suffering a traumatic brain injury,” the lawsuit says.
He left the fraternity house and was later taken to a hospital emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and post-concussive syndrome, according to the lawsuit.
H.B said that he didn’t fight back during the ordeal because he feared retaliation.
The lawsuit accuses SAE and its UA advisor, Hugh Miller, of negligence and says that they failed to ban or enforce the ban on pledgeship and hazing. It also accuses the organization of failing to investigate the Tuscaloosa chapter for potential hazing.
The fraternity responded to WBRC‘s request for comment with an email saying it was “made aware of an incident in August involving members of our chapter at the University of Alabama” and “immediately began working” with the school administration to investigate.
“We are also fully cooperating with local law enforcement to investigate the incident and have urged all of our local members to do the same,” the organization said. “It is not our practice to comment on matters related to litigation. Still, we want to be clear that acts of hazing and misconduct do not represent the Fraternity’s values, which are defined by our creed, The True Gentleman, and will not be tolerated. Members who engage in these activities will be held accountable to the fullest extent.”
SAE, founded in Tuscaloosa in 1856, moved its national headquarters to Evanston, Illinois, in 1929.
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[Featured image: Sigma Alpha Epsilon on the University of Alabama campus/Google Maps]
