It has been a few weeks since the hazing incident of a student and my heart still goes out to the Adamson community and to the family of John Matthew. I know this is a difficult time for all of them, their spirits are heavy and there is probably a feeling of betrayal that the death of one of their students was caused by those from their own community. I know this well. It was 2014 when our school community suffered the loss of a bright and promising student who died at the hands of his would-be “brothers” during their initiation rites.
When I hear the word fraternity I can’t help but equate it to violence, such as that experienced during hazing and rumbles. It was the hazing death of a law student that led to the crafting and passing of the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995. More than two decades later it would be the death of another law student via hazing that would lead to the amendment of the law that we now call the Anti-Hazing Law of 2018. Supposedly this 2018 legislation would give teeth to the 1995 law and yet, here we are, only five years later, mourning the loss of a college student at the hands of his “brothers.”
Many of our leaders in government, business and the academe are members of fraternities and if we ask them, I am sure they would say that violence is not among their values and there is never an intention to hurt or harm anyone who would like to join their ranks. I’d like to think that fraternities came about originally to band together individuals with the same interests and who would like to be of service to their community.
A quick Google search of Tau Gamma Phi – the fraternity involved in all this – shows that they are branded as a service fraternity, an organization whose primary purpose is community service. So why all this violence? Are they only after a shared experience? Or is it wanting to do to others what was done to them when they were neophytes?
If these are the reasons why fraternities still practice hazing then I urge those of you who are thinking of joining one to really, really reflect on whether this is a group that you really want to be a part of. You do not need to be humiliated in public, you do not need to obey unreasonable orders and you most certainly do not need to be beaten just so you can be part of a brotherhood. Upon joining a fraternity (or any group or organization) and you experience any form of intentional abuse as part of the application process – physical, verbal, or mental – take it as a sign to get out and find your tribe elsewhere. No one should have to jump through hoops to prove their worth and to be accepted.
Even if their purpose is to be of service to the community, fraternities that support violence in any form and metes it out onto others is no brotherhood and has no business in our educational institutions.
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Nicky Templo Perez is vice president for Lasallian Mission and Student Life of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.