Code of silence, weak law lead to few penalties in severe hazing cases

It was judgment day for the Sigma Pi fraternity at Ohio University.

One of its pledge brothers had died.

Members would go before a university disciplinary board in Athens and face allegations that pledges were beaten with belts, punched, pelted with eggs and covered in hot sauce.

The pledges, who were now active members, previously had given statements to an investigator describing some of the hazing and harmful behavior used by Sigma Pi members the months of the pledging process at the southeastern Ohio campus of 23,000 students.

But during the disciplinary hearing, one by one, the pledges called to testify used the same phrases when asked about their earlier statements.

“I don’t recall that.”

“I don’t remember that happening.”

“I don’t know.”

In her closing statement to the disciplinary board, Mary Kate Kennedy, the university’s investigator, expressed frustration at the lack of honesty and the code of silence that seems to be expected in Greek Life.

“People came in and wanted to completely change their stories and statements,” Kennedy said. “At some point, there wasn’t truth.”

The next day, the OU disciplinary board voted to expel the Sigma Pi fraternity.

Most hazing allegations on college campuses across the country don’t make it to disciplinary boards or result in consequences for those abusing students eager to become part of a society that embraces secrecy.

But this case at Ohio University was thrust into the national spotlight after Collin Wiant, a 18-year-old freshman from Dublin, Ohio, died after collapsing on the floor of an unofficial, off-campus fraternity on Nov. 12, 2018. A coroner ruled that Wiant died of asphyxiation due to nitrous oxide ingestion after he inhaled a canister of the gas, also known as a “whippit.”

The Dispatch spent months investigating Wiant’s life and death, his treatment as a Sigma Pi pledge, the university’s handling of the hazing allegations, and the fraternity’s reaction. The newspaper reviewed investigative documents, conducted dozens of interviews and obtained an audio recording of the disciplinary hearing from a source close to the OU’s internal investigation.

The newspaper produced a six-part audio story called “Broken Pledge” about fraternity hazing and the life and death of Collin.

Since early October, amid that investigation, OU began cracking down on hazing allegations across its campus. All 15 fraternity chapters affiliated with the Interfraternity Council were suspended, citing widespread hazing allegations. Nine are under further investigated for allegations of hazing prospective members. Cease-and-desist letters also were sent to three Women’s Panhellenic Association sororities, two business fraternities, Ohio University’s Marching 110 band, the men’s rugby team and, most recently, an engineering fraternity.

OU last week closed its investigations into three sororities — Chi Omega, Delta Zeta and Pi Beta Phi — for lack of evidence. The sororities have been reinstated. The university’s fraternity chapters of Theta Chi and Delta Tau Delta accepted responsibility for the allegations and have been reprimanded.

After the university suspended the fraternities, current and former students came forward with allegations, including that some sororities were forcing pledges to drink and strip so that their bodies could be “judged” and the students shamed.

The challenge of combating hazing goes far beyond the Athens campus and other colleges in Ohio. It is widespread.

In the last 15 years, 80 college students have died in connection with the Greek system, according to Hank Nuwer, a professor at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana, near Indianapolis. He tracks hazing deaths and wrote the book “Hazing: Destroying Young Lives.”

Nuwer’s research shows that at least one student has died from hazing-related activity every year since 1959.

And that doesn’t include the uncounted other students who have been hazed and now live with physical or emotional scars.

“Hazing is thoroughly engaged in American culture, and no organization has had as many deaths as USA’s fraternities,” Nuwer said. “Pressure from alums to continue hazing continues. A delusional belief that no harm will befall pledges makes undergrads continue with the tradition with self deceit and arrogance. The best thing to do if schools cannot shut down hazing is to shut the organizations themselves.”

Despite the uptick in deaths and calls for substantial reforms, Greek life appears to be more popular than ever.

John Hechlinger, author of “True Gentlemen: The Broken Pledge of America’s Fraternities,” said there are 100,000 men on college campuses across the U.S. who will be initiated to fraternity chapters this year.

About 400,000 men are in fraternities, Hechlinger said, and that’s a 50% increase compared to 10 years ago.

Experts like Nuwer said a lack of consequences is one reason hazing continues to escalate.

Earlier this year, a Dispatch investigation of records dating back at least 25 years in the municipal courts located near Ohio’s largest universities found only five hazing charges. In October, authorities in Oxford, Ohio, charged 18 Miami University students or former students in a case the newspaper had highlighted in it’s reporting.

Ohio’s hazing law is a fourth-degree misdemeanor. That’s comparable to the penalty for not paying a traffic ticket.

Criminal incidents often are not reported to local authorities. And despite having the criminal charge available to them, prosecutors rarely use it. When hazing is reported, prosecutors and law enforcement officers say witnesses are reluctant to come forward, making it difficult to charge anyone. Eleven states have made hazing a felony.

Former state senator Kevin Bacon, R-Westerville, tried two years ago to strengthen Ohio’s law on hazing.

Bacon proposed a bill that would have increased the punishment from a fourth-degree misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $250 fine, to a first-degree misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

“I think something needs to be done to protect kids,” Bacon said.

The bill never came up for a vote.

Local authorities are starting to take a greater interest in hazing.

In the Miami University case, the university suspended the Delta Tau Delta fraternity for up to 15 years, and a grand jury indicted the 18 men on 64 charges, including assault and hazing. The charges stem from a report from a student who said he had been blindfolded, beaten with a spiked paddle, kicked and forced to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana during the ritual.

Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said he has no tolerance for hazing that abuses students or anyone else.

He said there is a difference between rites of passages — such as cadets being made to scrub floors or polish shoes at military academies — and hazing that abuses or injures someone.

“Having the snot beat out of them is not a rite of passage,” Gmoser said.

“There’s no place for it, not in Ohio. They can take their fraternal organizations the hell off of these college campuses,” Gmoser said.

In recent years, some universities have increased efforts to crack down on hazing and implemented hazing awareness and prevention programs.

Ohio State University suspended all 37 fraternities governed by the Interfraternity Council in November 2017, citing a high number of fraternities under investigation for conduct violations. Miami has suspended several fraternities during the past five years.

OU officials said they were addressing hazing on campus long before Wiant’s death.

They had a task force in 2014 that led to a university hazing policy that made it mandatory for faculty and staff to report hazing if they were aware of it.

But that task force disbanded after it created the policy. Now, the university has formed a new task force whose mission, in part, is to “infiltrate” Greek life and more closely monitor fraternities and sororities for potential hazing conduct.

The university also has hired an additional Greek Life director who reports directly to Jenny Hall-Jones, senior associate vice president and dean of students.

Like many other university officials interviewed by The Dispatch, Hall-Jones said two big challenges they face are getting students to come forward to report hazing and breaking down the secrecy promoted in Greek life.

Hall-Jones became emotional when talking about Wiant’s death and the disappointment his family now has for a school they once loved — one where his parents, Kathleen and Wade, met and two of their other four children studied.

“It’s hard; I’ve worked here 21 years, both my kids go to school here,” said Hall-Jones. “If something like that happened to my child, I would have feelings, too. It’s just devastating.”

The Dispatch contacted several of Wiant’s fraternity brothers and attorneys for the national Sigma Pi organization, but all declined to comment. Sigma Pi released a statement saying that they were saddened to learn of Wiant’s death but couldn’t comment further due to the ongoing wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Wiant family.

“Sigma Pi Fraternity was deeply saddened to learn about the tragic death of Collin Wiant early on the morning of November 12, 2018,” the statement said.

“We continue to send our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and the entire Ohio University community. In light of the lawsuit initiated by the Wiant family, we will not comment further on the matter.”

The Athens County Police Department, which continues to investigate Wiant’s death, also declined to comment.

For the past year, the Wiant family has been seeking answers about the death of their son and are crusading against hazing so that other families won’t have to endure their pain.

Wiant’s younger brother, Aidan, has been through intense therapy since losing his best friend, and Kathleen Wiant has searched online for advice on how to respond when someone asks how many children you have after one of your children dies.

And Wade Wiant remains angry.

Angry that it took Ohio University almost a year after Wiant died to crack down on alleged hazing around campus.

Angry that his son lay there gasping for air while others wondered if they should call for help.

Angry that he didn’t find a way to get his son out of a toxic environment.

“I think brotherhood is completely 180 from what I understood about brotherhood in the Greek system,” said Wade Wiant, who had been a fraternity member as an OU student in the 1980s.

“You know what I got out of my fraternity experience? I got a brother-in-law. I got two guys that are godparents to my kids. I got lifelong incredible friendships with guys that came hundreds of miles to go to Wiant’s calling hours.”

But for some, brotherhood apparently means something different, he said.

“There is this predatory type of underlying piece to this that they manipulate you under the guise of brotherhood,” he said.