Central Florida Future
By Sean Lavin
The odor of burning flesh permeated the air as two blazing hot irons seared
the Greek letter Omega into both sides of Byron Washington's chest two years
ago. Minutes later, a third and final Omega was scorched into the fraternity
member's upper arm.
What Washington endured is known as branding. And Washington was not the only
UCF student that allowed a red hot Omega-shaped iron to leave a lasting impression
across his body. Twelve brothers of Omega Psi Phi also asked to be branded alongside
Washington that night.
Washington, who is currently serving as president of his chapter, says branding in this context isn't hazing because it's not performed as a condition of membership. Nearly 80 percent of Omega brothers choose to get branded on their own accord, he added, pointing out that branding is only permitted after someone pledging his fraternity is initiated as a fully vested member.
But a tough new law that criminalizes violent hazing in Florida directly cites branding as a form of hazing, referencing the popular activity as type of "brutality of a physical nature."
The Chad Meredith Act, crafted by Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, is considered by many as the strongest anti-hazing statute in the nation. The law is named in honor of a Kappa Sigma pledge that drowned as a result of hazing at the University of Miami in 2001.
When Gov. Jeb Bush signed Hasner's bill last week, high school and college hazing resulting in serious bodily injury or death became a third degree felony. Hazing that doesn't cause an injury - but could have - is now classified as a first-degree misdemeanor throughout the state.
When asked about the Chad Meredith Act's effect on branding, Hasner acknowledged that "it could be prosecuted" under the new law. But he stressed that, "cases like that, if they were prosecuted, would probably be determined on a case by case basis."
"Each case is going to have to be looked at on its own merits by the prosecutors," Hasner explained.
The very prospect of seeing his fraternity brothers prosecuted and potentially put behind bars for carrying out the age-old tradition of branding, which has been alive for generations within the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, has Washington concerned.
"I would be worried if they want to take it that far to prosecute members of my organization," Washington said. "I'll never risk my personal freedom or college education for anything."
If prosecutors do start bringing charges against students for branding their fellow fraternity brothers, Washington says he and his brothers will launch a campaign to change the law.
Citing the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of expression, Washington said members should not be restricted from bearing their fraternity's symbol on their body in the form of a brand, much like they wouldn't be restricted from having the symbol tattooed onto their skin.
The state should "at least define [branding] a different way," he said, suggesting a distinction be drawn between incidents of forced branding and the consensual branding that his fraternity brothers enjoy as a symbol of pride in their organization.
But while Washington says branding is "not that big of a deal," and compares it to getting a tattoo, other UCF students see it as unnecessary.
"I can't even think of a reason why people would do it, I really can't," said senior Ashley Sturm, who feels the law should stay the way it is. "Because if the arm gets infected, then they can throw it back on the fraternity and say they were pressured into it."
"It just creates more harm than good," the criminal justice major continued. "There are going to be those issues you just can't escape."
Looking beyond the branding issues, Hasner called hazing an "epidemic" plaguing the state, and condemned the recent rash of incidents - including a high school soccer player from Deltona who was dropped on her head during a hazing incident - as "senseless and heinous acts that lead to physical injury and sometimes death."
"I think there is a much more positive way to impart brotherhood and sisterhood and team-building," added Hasner, who explained how he spent much of his life working to achieve just that as a chapter officer, advisor, and ultimately national officer of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
"By increasing the penalties and criminalizing hazing in the state of Florida, I'm confident that we're going to put more students on notice that the state will no longer tolerate this type of behavior," Hasner said.
A major intent behind the law appears to focus on preventing what Hasner describes as hazing incidents that "may seem like fun and games," but instead "result in serious injury or sometimes even death."
Victims often consent to activities that seem harmless or fun, but unfortunately end in tragedy.
"Willing participants sometimes aren't willing participants," Hasner said, while pointing out how it was difficult for prosecutors to obtain a conviction in battery criminal cases related to hazing before his bill became law, because perpetrators used the victim's consent as a defense in court.
"This new law prevents the perpetrators of hazing from using the victim's consent as a defense," Hasner said. "It's an important new distinction in the law."
Aside from increasing the penalties for hazing, the bill only slightly altered the definition of hazing, which in part reads, "any action or situation that recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student ... "
The law cites the following as further examples of hazing: "pressuring or coercing the student into violating state or federal law, any brutality of a physical nature, such as whipping, beating, branding, exposure to the elements, forced consumption of any food, liquor or drug ... or forced physical activity that could adversely affect the physical health or safety of the student."
And in addition to consent no longer being a valid defense against the crime of hazing, members of campus organizations hazing others can no longer escape culpability even if the activity resulting in the death or injury of the hazing victim wasn't part of an official organizational event
