As time goes on, these hazing rituals seem to be getting more and more horrendous. In fact, the past 10 years have produced some of the most shocking hazing-gone-wrong stories on record. While there isn't a hard-and-fast reason as to why, one can assume it's sororities and fraternities trying to up the ante on what their brothers and sisters pulled off before them.
As a result of "upping the ante," the United States alone has seen 125 hazing deaths since 1838. Of those deaths, 25 percent occurred in the 2000s and 2010s alone, which should give you a sense of just how bad hazing rituals have gotten in recent years.
Dartmouth College, which boasts some of the most notorious hazing fraternities and sororities, was actually just in the news because an Alpha Delta pledge was allegedly branded on the butt by his brothers. According to Gawker, the student's injury got infected, and pictures of the brand — which was the frat's insignia — got leaked back to the powers that be at Dartmouth. Not your smartest moment, Alpha Delta.
But it's a far cry from the most awful cases of hazing to date. Here's my list of the top 10 worst instances of hazing, listed from least to most horrifying. Read on only if you have a strong stomach.
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10. The human garbage bag
Britteny Starling, former pledge of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority at University of California, Berkeley, said she was forced to act as a human mop and garbage can, cleaning up juice from the floor and collecting garbage from the other girls using just her hands and pockets. Then she and the other pledges were made to stay awake all night without being allowed to use the bathroom. They were also forced to stay standing, and when Starling's leg gave out, a sister hit her in the ankle, injuring her severely. She later sued the sorority, which was later shut down. At least that's sort of a win, right?
9. The double brand
This case of branding, in my opinion, outdoes the recent Dartmouth one. A drunk Kappa Sigma pledge was branded with the frat's Greek letters by his brothers using a hot iron hanger. He apparently passed out in the process, which gave his brothers incentive to brand him further. He woke up with both Kappa Sigma letters on his butt as well as the sorority Tri Delta's letters. While it sounds funny, he ended up with third-degree burns, which took six surgeries to heal.
8. Eat the curb
In 2008 at Penn State Altoona, sorority pledge Joanne told ABC news she was forced to stand facing a concrete wall with the other pledges, and if any of them moved an inch, their face would be slammed into it. They were also apparently forced to scrub the floors using only their fingernails and to drink water that she described as "pitch black." While the college website has strict rules against hazing, the offending sorority was left unpunished, and Joanne continued to receive harassing emails, phone calls and messages throughout her time at Penn State. Such emotional scars take much longer to heal than physical ones.
7. Burn, baby, burn
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New Orleans is not just known for its steamy weather. In 2008, 10 Pi Kappa Alpha members from Tulane University poured boiling water, pepper spray and cayenne pepper down the backs of their pledges. Apparently the water got hotter and hotter as the night went on, and the pledges who managed to not scream got the worst burns. Fortunately these hazers were brought to justice and faced charges of aggravated second-degree battery. The fraternity is no longer recognized by the university.
6. The washing machine
Jo Hannah Burch, who was pledging Gamma Psi at Young Harris College in 2013, said she and other pledges were forced to crawl through the mud into a freezing creek in the woods while other sisters screamed and spit on them. Then they were made to sit on washing machines, and any body part that jiggled was circled with a Sharpie. After the school's Greek life was called out, YHC claimed the student's accounts were "false and outrageous."
5. Hot and cold
At Binghamton University in 2012, sorority pledges told the school they were forced to take freezing cold showers together while reciting the Greek alphabet and being fed vomit-inducing pills by their sisters. To counteract that, they were then made to hold hot hookah coals in their hands. The school shut down the Greek system after these allegations, only to reinstate it later after a new set of guidelines had been enforced.
4. Water torture
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If you thought water was the key to life and can therefore do no harm, think again. Chi Tau fraternity pledges from California State University, Chico were forced to drink 5 gallons of water while simultaneously being drenched in ice water and having fans blow cold air on them. They were also forced to do strenuous exercise and not allowed to use the bathroom. One pledge eventually passed out from hypothermia and later died from swelling of the brain caused by water intoxication. Water intoxication — by far the most horribly ironic way to die in college.
3. Gross with a capital "G"
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Dartmouth again! Wow, I'm really glad I didn't even think about attending this college. Frat pledges in 2012 had to swim in a kiddie pool filled with human feces, semen and rotten food. If that wasn't enough, they then were made to eat vomit omelets (yum), chug vinegar and drink beer that had been poured through the butt cheeks of other pledges (creative). I also know from an anonymous source that they had to drink from a chalice filled with an unknown mix of alcohol, rotten food and condiments. When one pledge puked, they had to puke into the chalice and keep passing it on. It's funny to think that some of these guys are probably doctors now.
2. One sip from death
Another Dartmouth winner, this time in the sorority column. This one's so bad it should be told in the victim's own words. A 2009 Dartmouth grad wrote this account of her Kappa Kappa Gamma hazing for Huffington Post:
"We were guided into the back seat of a car and one of our future sisters commanded us to chug the alcoholic punch that had been pre-prepared for each of us in individual 64-ounce water bottles. Simultaneously, I was handed numerous vodka shots from the older sister sitting in the front seat.
"After what couldn't have been more than a fifteen-minute drive, I was told to get out of the car. I did -- but then I lost all consciousness...I woke up the following morning in the Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
I had bruises and cuts all over my body, two of my teeth were broken and I was intubated and restrained. The doctor informed me that I had entered the hospital with a .399 blood alcohol content. I soon learned that a .4 BAC is coma and death. I was literally one sip of alcohol away from dying."
1. An old classic
Sometimes the simplest thing is the most horrible. In 1959 at the University of Southern California, the brothers of Kappa Sigma forced their pledges to swallow pieces of liver the size of club sandwiches without chewing. Of course, one pledge named Richard Swanson choked and died two hours later.
More on hazing
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Savannah Guthrie survives hazing on the Today Show
Nick Jonas has agreed to get hazed by frat boys
