That's what one Marrero woman said happened to her son when he
tried to join a fraternity at Louisiana State University this semester.
Cybil Thomas said repeated beatings of her 20-year-old son in the
name of brotherhood left him with an open wound 7 inches around and
a half-inch deep on his buttocks that required two surgeries,
including a skin graft, to repair.
"It's unbelievable that someone who could call you a friend or a
brother could be responsible for this kind of abuse," Thomas said.
"That's what this is: It's abuse."
LSU officials could not be reached for
comment late Thursday but Thomas said the fraternity has been
suspended from the campus pending an investigation.
Thomas said her son, a sophomore, was one of 10 students this
semester who decided to join LSU's chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi
fraternity. Their pledge period involved running late-night errands
for members and other personal tasks.
It also involved ritual beating, Thomas said. For six weeks, her
son and the other boys were ordered to bend over while fraternity
members hit them on the buttocks with a paddle or a cane. Thomas'
son, whose name is being withheld at his request, said the boys
weren't allowed to cry or scream.
The pledges were warned that if they reported the abuses or
dropped out, the remaining pledges would suffer all the more, his
mother said.
"That was the hold they had on him. . . . It was manipulation and
mind games," Thomas said.
LSU has taken a strong stand against fraternity hazing since the
death of a 20-year-old
pledge from alcohol poisoning in 1997. The school's Web site
notes that "Hazing is a serious offense and will not be tolerated
under any circumstances."
Kappa Alpha Psi officials could not be reached for comment, but the
national organization's Web site indicates that it, too, does not
tolerate abuse of its pledges. Among the list of prohibited
activities: "inflict physical or emotional abuse" and "require
butler and/or maid services from pledges," two things Thomas' son
said happened at LSU.
Thomas noticed a difference in her son when he came home during
the first weekend in March. He'd lost about 20 pounds, she said, and
he seemed pale.
But what terrified her, she said, was when he turned around one
day and she saw blood stains on his pants.
"Literally, one whole side of his jeans was saturated with
blood," Thomas said.
Thomas rushed her son to the emergency room at West Jefferson
Hospital. In one operation, the open wound, originally about 3
inches around, was
cleaned and the dead and damaged skin removed. That left a wound
more than 7 inches in diameter, large enough to almost cover one
buttock cheek.
During a second surgery, doctors removed skin from the side of
the boy's thigh and grafted it to the damaged area. In total,
Thomas' son spent about two weeks in the hospital.
Thomas said her son is emotionally withdrawn and embarrassed by
what happened. Asked by a reporter how he felt about the members of
Kappa Alpha Psi, he said, "I haven't thought about it. I don't
really want to think about it."
Thomas said her son, who is on an academic scholarship, will not
return to LSU this semester. She's not sure if he'll ever go back.
"He intends to go back and clear out his dorm and get a sense of
the atmosphere and how ostracized he is," she said. "If he feels too
uncomfortable, I'm sure he'll be attending another university."
The paddling, the aspiring fraternity member was told, would
"toughen up your hide." After the wide, flat paddle came a cane that
left welts in its wake.