TRAPPED IN A MASONIC WORLD

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I belonged to a boys club, specifically set-up for under privileged working class kids, and I went to one
of the most roughest and toughest of all-boys secondary schools in East London, where stabbings, beatings
and the most violent of acts took place regularly, whether inside or out of school, were some women
teachers were sexually molested, and even raped. We all seemed to be a bit crazy, the more violent you
were, the more respect you got, it was as simple as that. Some kids would have their teeth kicked out, and
had to lie to their own parents and say it happened playing football or rugby, or they had stupidly fell over.
Coins would be tossed onto the tarmac of the playground, the words; ―Bundle‖ and ―Scramble‖ would be
shouted out, and between 20 to 30 kids would start kicking and punching the fuck out of each other, - even
those who didn‘t want to be part of it, were forcibly pushed into the direction of the scrum, and slapped
about and beaten. Some of the nastier types, would creep up from behind, and without anyone noticing,
would stab some of the kids in the cheeks of their arse, using a small penknife or playing dart.
Another trick that was done by the older boys in our ‗gang‘, was to get some lads to slide down a
washing line pole, – which had a double sided hook attached midway down it, and where the line would be
lashed around to keep the line up. This pole, was close to a 8ft high wall, - the objective was to jump from
the wall onto the pole, and then slide down it like a fireman, those who knew what was going to happen,
jumped off the pole before sliding down it too far, - though others who never had done it before, would
slide all the way down it. The hook which couldn‘t really be noticed from the top of the wall, would
normally hit you at the base of your testicles, and hurt your groin in general. On one occasion when I was
there, a kid had his bollocks ripped to pieces, the hook went deep into his ball-sack and tore the flesh wide
open.
40% of athletes who reported being involved in hazing behaviours report that a coach or advisor was
aware of the activity; 22% report that the coach was ‗involved‘. As was the case with us at school or away
on the weekends, in fact it was more of a case that the coach‘s or helpers were directly involved. 2 in 5
students say they are aware of hazing taking place on their campus, and more than 1 in 5 report that they
witnessed hazing personally, though in 95% of cases where students identified their experience as hazing,
they did not report the events to campus officials. As of 12th February 2010, the number of recorded
hazing/pledging/rushing-related deaths in fraternities and sororities in the US stood at 96 - ninety were
males, and six females, and where 82% of deaths from hazing involve alcohol [2] .
Deaths by Hazing
Hazing and bullying, has been a problem, not just within historically white men‘s secret societies,
clubs, gangs or fraternities, but also within women‘s groups, and within historically non-white
organisations. As the result of hazing, numerous deaths and injuries have occurred, and this problem of
hazing with BGLOs has been extensively explored. Similarly, despite explicit prohibition of hazing by the
NALFO, hazing still occurs in these organisations, leading several chapters to be suspended. It must also
be said that certain colleges and universities have banned Greek letter organisations with the justification
that they are by their very structure set up to be elitist and exclusionary. Though saying that, despite
previous bans or suspensions, it‘s only a matter of time when they resurface again, and if anything, it‘s far
from the norm, for any kind of college or universities to not have some kind of involvement in some way
or another with Greek letter fraternities. [2]
In the book: The Effects of Sorority and Fraternity Membership by DeSousa, Gordon & Kimbrough
[2004] it describes how many undergraduates in BGLO‘s want a return to organised hazing, considering it
to represent an upholding of the true nature and traditions of those organisations. They conclude that these
organisations on the national level ‗should consider the issue of pledging to be a crisis, but they appear
satisfied with their public nakedness on this issue‘. Although hazing is outlawed in most states, ―Some
[people] contend that hazing continues for a number of social reasons that serve important team and/or
brotherhood-sisterhood functions such as enhancing…cohesion‖. [4]
The list of following deaths are as a direct result of ‗hazing‘, though in my eyes, I‘d argue some are
blatant cases of murder and manslaughter at the very least. The majority of these deaths are of white
students, and not from BGLO‘s, where I think around about 3 or 4 of the deaths were either African-
American or Hispanic origin.
Hazing related deaths actually predate these, though I‘ll start in 1959, the ‗pledges‘ of Kappa Sigma
were taking part in a hazing ritual that involved the young men to stand before a buffet table where a tray
with raw liver was presented. The pieces of liver, each about the size of a club sandwich, were soaked in