AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: USC looks into frat hazing charge

The Daily Trojan LOS ANGELES (U-WIRE) -- The University of Southern California chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is facing hazing charges stemming from a January 8 incident in which 15 of the fraternity's pledges were found behind the house with hands behind their backs and ropes around their necks, USC Department of Public Safety officers said. If a review conducted by the USC Office of Student Conduct finds the incident to be hazing, the fraternity could face sanctions. Sandra Rhoten, assistant dean for the OSC, was unavailable for comment. Hazing is a felony under the California Penal Code, but criminal charges will not be pressed, DPS Deputy Chief Bob Taylor said. "It's strictly a Student Conduct matter," Taylor said. The fraternity's president, John Moshy, disputes DPS' interpretation of the event. "I wasn't there that night," said Moshy, a junior majoring in business. "But I can guarantee you that no active [brother] would put a pledge in that situation, and that no pledge would allow himself to be put in that situation." The activities of the house that night were part of an initiation ritual, and not hazing, Moshy said. Responding to a report of possible hazing, a DPS officer went to the fraternity around 1 p.m. on January 8, where he heard "screams of pain" coming from inside the house, DPS officials said. After the officer told a pledge who was cleaning the front porch to go inside and find a member of the fraternity's executive board, the screaming stopped, DPS reported. The officer entered the house with the executive and found 15 people wearing white T-shirts individually numbered one through 15, and otherwise identical clothing, with hands tied behind their backs and "large, thick ropes tied around their necks with onions tied at the bottom," DPS reports said. "No one appeared to be injured," Taylor said. The pledge class president said he did not believe he or anyone else was being hazed or was in danger, but could not define hazing, DPS said. The executive said no one was being hazed and that he did not know where the screams were coming from, DPS reported. The pledge president declined to comment. "This fraternity lacks the understanding of the consequences involved in hazing," the reporting police officer said. "Should a complaint be registered, it's DPS' responsibility to investigate, but it's not their responsibility to judge its validity," Moshy said.