Florida A&M is having a horrible time with hazing. Last month a female member of the band was jumped in (no better way to describe being beaten to enter a club) and suffered blood clots and a broken leg. Two weeks later the drum major (the student leader of the band) was forced to run the gauntlet where his fellow band members beat him to death. The band director has been suspended and now the school president may be suspended.
What was once a simple tradition got out of hand. I was a Marine for 10 years. The Marine Corps knows tradition, and knows hazing. It’s part of what we do. The Marine Corps has been hazing people for over 200 years and is not going to stop. It’s the same with university students.
So what can be done? Out law hazing? We have already tried that and it’s not working. What’s needed is a cultural shift. The shift needs to happen by the top and bottom of the organization.
As a junior Marine I was hazed by having to do extra duty and given extra PT (lots of pushups and running). When I became an NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) I was given a blood stripe by senior Marines. Each senior Marine lined up and kneed me in the leg. It hurt for a couple hours, but I was fine.
Fast-forward five years and I was a Platoon Sergeant in charge of 30 Marines. One of my Marines got promoted to NCO and everyone lined up after formation in the back away from senior Marines. At first my platoon was trying to hide from me because they were afraid I would be against the tradition. I was there to supervise the affair. I watched for about 2 minutes and then stepped in and stopped it before someone got hurt. No one got hurt, it didn’t get out of hand, the tradition was upheld, and our new NCO felt like part of the club and 200 years of tradition.
There is the problem with making hazing illegal. The junior member of the group wants to be hazed because it’s tradition and will make them part of the group. The senior members of the group want to push the tradition they were given to new members. There has to be some controls, and that’s where the most senior members of the group come in. They create those controls and show other members what the hazing should be and what it should not. Now that hazing is illegal everywhere, the most senior members of the group are hidden from and are telling the rest of the group not to haze, even though a year ago they were part of the hazing.
With the most senior members of the group removed, there are only members that haven’t given out the tradition, only received it. They don’t know how to administer the tradition. They use to many people, go too hard, and continue the punishment longer then they should. That is how people get hurt and killed at these rituals.
If you are a senior member of a group that has a long and rich tradition, make sure you supervise any tradition, even if it may be considered hazing. The hazing will happen if you are there or not. Supervise it like any other thing that happens in your organization and take it upon yourself to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. Past the tradition down safely.
Stay Safe,
Ben