Fraternity at Virginia university suspended after stun gun hazing ritual
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Version 0 of 1. A fraternity at Washington and Lee University in Virginia has been suspended after a reported incident in which a stun gun was used on a student as part of a hazing ritual. Related: Free speech advocates question Oklahoma response to racist chant Brian Eckert, a spokesman for the university, said that the victim suffered no lasting injury. However, hazing is illegal in Virginia, and the incident has been reported to law enforcement, Eckert confirmed. The incident was reported via the university’s anonymous online hazing form on Friday, and a public safety investigation was initiated. In a letter to all students and faculty on Tuesday, the university president, Kenneth Ruscio, condemned the incident. “Hazing in any form is antithetical to this University’s principles,” he said. “A serious violation occurred – a violation that, if left unresolved, threatens not only the integrity of the fraternity system but also of the University itself.” “This was a case of clear physical abuse, harmful enough as it was, but under the circumstances potentially even more dangerous. It was a specific act that occurred in a climate of intimidation that existed throughout the fraternity’s new member education program,” Ruscio said. The fraternity house itself will also be closed, and the 17 students living there will be rehoused in university accommodations. This is not the first incident of hazing at Washington and Lee involving a stun gun. In 1998, the Roanoke Times reported, 10 fraternity members received a one-year suspension for assaulting pledges with a cattle prod. |