Hazing Must End: Texas Tech Sends Students Annual Hazing Notice

With the fall semester approaching and new students starting to rush their desired fraternities and sororities, Texas Tech sends their annual warning against hazing.

Hazing is a prominent issue within Greek life, and some fraternities and sororities will do terrible things during their initiation process. They will do everything from sleep deprivation, forcing alcohol consumption, and physically harming their prospective members. It is absolutely horrifying what some of these poor kids go through just to join one of these organizations.

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As a part of the hazing warning that Tech sends out to students, they also include a four-page list of reported hazing incidents since 2014. The most recent incident on the list is from the Alpha Delta Pi sorority on April 11, 2021. The earliest incident on the list is actually the reason the list was created in the first place.

On August 24, 2014, 18-year-old Dalton Debrick was killed in a hazing incident at the Texas Tech University Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

Debrick was killed by alcohol poisoning after being blindfolded and forced to drink excessive amounts of alcohol by members of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. After his body was found in a Lubbock home, an autopsy showed that Debrick had four times the legal alcohol limit for driving in his body.

The newly formed fraternity colony was immediately disbanded, two students involved in the hazing were expelled and they were charged with providing alcohol to a minor along with three other students.

It is absolutely unacceptable for people to be put in harm's way with the excuse that the students have to ‘prove themselves’ in order to join Greek life. The fact that the most common incident on the Texas Tech hazing list is forced alcohol consumption, even after someone was killed by it, is disgusting. People's lives are at risk and it needs to stop.

I appreciate Tech for providing this information and being on top of any reported hazing, but something needs to change. The university should not need to put out these warnings in the first place. If you or your child are planning to rush this semester, then I encourage you to be careful and stay safe.