By Diane Hirth
Tallahassee Democrat
The Florida A&M University Police Department is investigating an alleged
fraternity hazing that left one student so severely beaten that he required
surgery, his father said.
Mark Jones, father of Marcus Jones,
a sophomore from Decatur, Ga., said his son told him he was beaten for four
nights in a row with canes while
pledging Kappa Alpha Psi, one of the nation's
oldest and largest black fraternities. Mark Jones said the incident apparently
involved 26 pledges
and occurred sometime during the last week of February.
"Because of the severe beatings
he had taken, his right buttocks looked like a purple volleyball, and there
was so much swelling some of the skin
literally died," Mark Jones said Thursday. "Imagine a 3-by-3 (inch)
area and all of the skin taken off down to the fatty tissue."
FAMU Police Chief Calvin Ross confirmed
Thursday that the department is gathering information and that one of his investigators
is "interviewing
those individuals who may have knowledge of what took place."
"We are pulling together information, or looking into this incident, to the greatest extent we can," Ross said.
Last year Florida made hazing, if
it results in serious injury or death, a felony. It can be punishable with up
to five years in prison, regardless of
whether the victim consented. But there is confusion as to whether FAMU's police
department or another local law enforcement agency will be the lead investigator.
That's because it's unclear if the incident occurred on or off campus, Ross
said.
"He doesn't know where,"
Mark Jones said of his son. "They blindfolded them. Sometimes they were
literally beat to the point they literally passed
out."
"He's still in a state of denial.
He didn't really want to come forward and let the guys down," Mark Jones
said. "He didn't blow the whistle. I did,
and I'm proud of it."
Mark Jones said his son did not want to be interviewed.
Marcus Jones called home March 1
to say he was hurt, said the father, a U.S. Army master sergeant mobilized for
Operation Iraqi Freedom at Fort
Gillem in Georgia. The environmental sciences student drove himself home on
March 2, and arrived with his clothes soaked in blood. He was taken to the DeKalb
Medical Center emergency room March 3, his father said.
Marcus Jones, who suffered from a
hematoma, internal bleeding and required 25 stitches, faces three to four weeks
of recovery and will miss the rest
of the spring semester, according to his father. His pain is still significant
enough to require treatment with morphine.
At Kappa Alpha Psi's national office
in Philadelphia, Executive Director Richard Snow said someone has to file a
complaint for his organization to
investigate or take action on an alleged hazing.
"There has been no action taken
as of this date," said Snow in regard to the FAMU chapter. "In a nutshell,
we prohibit, in any shape, fashion or
form, hazing," he added.
Mark Jones pledged Kappa Alpha Psi 27 years ago at University of Alabama, Birmingham.
"I'm more than upset. I'm mad. I'm steaming," he said.
For what was done to his son, "They're going to have to lock people up," he said. "He's a good kid. He's never given anyone trouble."
Hazing has been a dangerous, difficult-to-suppress ritual on many college campuses. A University of Miami student, Chad Meredith, drowned in 2001 in a Kappa Sigma hazing, and his parents fought for the 2005 state law with stricter penalties.
That same year, FAMU student Marcus Parker suffered kidney failure after a severe paddling initiation to play in FAMU's Marching 100 band and later won a $1.8 million civil verdict.
In 1999, the Florida State University's
Marching Chiefs' drum major and a saxophone player were kicked out of the band
for hazing that included
paddling of second-year band students.
