Two Kappa Alpha Psi Members from FAMU Receive Prison Sentences for Hazing
Judge Uses New Law to Convict Two Florida a & M University Fraternity Members for Hazing
Though the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brothers have long been pegged the "pretty boys" of the fraternity world, a recent sentencing on Monday of two Kappa Alpha Psi members from FAMU have exposed the ugly side of a practice called hazing.
Michael Morton, 23, a former president of FAMU's Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity was determined to be guilty of hitting pledge hopeful Marcus Jones, 20, extremely hard with a wooden cane -- so much so that Jones eventually had to undergo surgery for his bruised backside. Jones, a Decatur, Ga., resident, endured four nights of the hazing that would ultimately lead him to seek medical treatment.
Hailing from Fort Lauderdale, Morton received a two-year prison sentence from Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker, a judge who took full advantage of a 2005 felony law designed to prevent such hazing prevalent througout fraternities and sororities. Wanting to send a clear message that this type of torture would not be tolerated on college campuses, the judge created Florida's first prosecutions beneath this particular hazing law.
Also sentenced was Jason Harris, 25, from Jacksonville. Both Harris and Morton were taken from the court in handcuffs, along with Richard Keith Alan II, lawyer for Harris. Alan himself was charged with indirect criminal contempt. Judge Dekker did not elaborate on her decision to charge Alan with contempt of court.
But Dekker did explain her rationale behind imposing the two-year sentence on both Kappa Alpha Psi members: "I want to save the victims who will quietly go along because they want to belong," Dekker explained.
"I want schools to be furious and mad and upset that they can lose talent to this and come down hard on hazing," the judge continued, hoping her ruling would deter others from this common and ritualistic type of hazing behavior.
Though not directly named as striking Jones, Harris was charged in the criminal action due to his participation by persuading Jones to take the beatings. He also reportedly woke Jones up with water after Jones had passed out so that he could return for more hazing strikes.
Various professors and university officials pleaded for leniency for the duo, including Morton's pregnant fiancée. Jones was not in court, but his father, Army Master Sgt. Mark Jones, was.
"They tortured my son," Sgt. Jones said. "He wasn't hazed. He was tortured."
Published by Paula Neal Mooney
Paula Neal Mooney has been published in various national magazines, such as Writer's Digest and other parenting publications. She has been writing online since 2005, and focuses on the areas of Christiani... View profile
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22 Comments
Post a Comment--s will just scoff at this.
This is absolutely revolting. And my girlfriend wonders why I wince when she says "I'm thinking of joining a sorority." The sororities can actually be much crueler (as opposed to the fraternities) when it comes to the whole "initiation" process. Not that I mean to make the fraternities look any gentler. Initiations in some include sexual activities, physical abuse, etc. for both sides. While it's true that there are other sororities and fraternities which are clean and innocent enough (Google it, you'll see some nice fraternities and sororities), there are others that are just horrific. It's disgusting that people willingly join sororities and fraternities that they know have cruel initiation processes, just for the social benefits. People don't not talk about the initiation because it's secret. They don't talk about it because oft times the stories are humiliating. I don't understand why people can't just make friends, study partners and whatnot on their own. Sadly, a lot of sororitie
Yo!
They went through this
Dang dats bad i hate it lord have mercy dem cute cute kappas
can we have aconversation
Thanks, Shamontiel. That movie should be interesting. I really love Terrance Howard's work.
I knew your name sounded familiar. I've read your stuff before. All right, well, I'm back again. (Congrats on being one of the top CPs!) A co-worker of mine told me that Terrance Howard is taping for a movie about hazing called "Burning of the Sands." Not sure when it will release but I'm excited to see it when it comes out.
If this is what it takes to be a Black man, then why not be a real man when the "accident" happens. Don't run around looking for some story for the other brothers to memorize. Don't hide behind the shield because you know others in the frat "have your back". Pick up the phone...no better yet, get in your car and go to his mother's house and tell her. "I just broke your son's ribs, bloodied his lip, crushed his skull and kicked his Black a-- until he collapsed in the basement. He was trying to skate into the frat, you know? And we wasn't having any of that. But you know something? He went out like a true brother! He took it like a man!"
If we want a brother to be smarter and tougher so he can succeed "in the real world" then why don't we make sure he gets to class on time, refreshed instead of exhausted from all-night pledge sessions? Have we given in to the racist views of our oppressors who only judge a Black man's manhood by the stripes he can endure from the whip and not by the mental prowess he can display in the classroom? Or is that just being soft?
If you wanted to make a case for hazing, these are but a few of the options you have to convince a pledgee to accept what they are being asked to endure before "crossing the sands" to come into the frat. But there are some questions you have to ask yourself if you have any sense of history and any sense of racial pride. How do you explain to him that after slavery is abolished for over a hundred years, a pledge should submit to being treated worse by his "brothers" than his ancestors were by their "masters"? How do you justify beating a brother into submission with boards, belts, fists and other instruments to teach him that he is becoming a "man" by allowing himself to be punished like a child?
There is much we do in Black fraternities that we attempt to justify by saying "it's a Black thing, you wouldn't understand". But in the final analysis, even the Blackest of us still don't understand why it is necessary to haze a prospective member in the name of "making him right".
If we w