TRAGEDY LETS EDUCATOR TELL ABOUT HAZING INCIDENT

From last year's hazing tragedy at Southeast Missouri State University has sprung an opportunity to teach and to enact law measures to serve as constant reminders of Michael Davis' death.

Southeast Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Sue Ann Strom has both a personal and professional obligation to Davis, who was hazed to death Feb. 15 by members of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Davis was a pledge of the fraternity.

"My role as an educator and administrator is to create a climate where we don't forget," Strom said, adding that to do so would be "counterproductive."

For state Sen. Wayne Goode, D-Normandy, Davis' death means proposing a law to increase penalties for certain types of hazing to a felony.

"Under certain circumstances, where a severe beating takes place, it would become a felony instead of a misdemeanor," Goode said.

Strom recalled when she heard of Davis' death:

When she received the call, a remembered Davis' face when he interviewed her for the campus newspaper.

The news had a chilling effect on Strom and her colleagues, she said.

Today, she calls on her experiences when she gives speeches on the hazing incident. She has spoken to the National Association of Student Personnel Administration at a regional conference at Aspen, Colo., and will participate at a national conference at San Diego, Calif., in March.

"This is a powerful opportunity for us to teach and we have to take advantage of that," Strom said. "Even if we wanted to forget, we couldn't. This story was covered by media across the country."

She said as the anniversary of the incident nears, the more "we'll be asked to talk about it."

While Southeast had a policy banning fraternities from hazing long before Davis' death, she said the university has broadened the scope "to include any groups or individuals, not just Greek fraternities, who would disrespect or abuse someone."

Goode said Davis' death at the hands of fellow Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity members made him harder for the hazing measure last year.

"We tried to get it included as an amendment to the juvenile crime bill, but it was shot down at the last minute because of a concealed weapons provision attached to it that died in the last session," Goode said.

He will try to get the measure introduced again this year.

There were other incidents where someone died from hazing, Goode said, but Davis' death was a reminder of what can happen.

"Physically pounding someone is a brutal act and should be classified as a felony in the eyes of the law," he said.

A St. Louis jury found Kappa Alpha Psi President Laimmoire Taylor guilty Nov. 9 on five counts of hazing and involuntary manslaughter in the death. Taylor was sentenced to a year in jail, but due to jail overcrowding and confusion over a judge's order, Taylor was released after serving just 13 days. He has been returned to jail.

Taylor was one of seven men convicted of involuntary manslaughter and hazing, while 15 other Kappas were convicted of misdemeanor hazing.

Goode said it was sad it took someone's death to punish those doing the beating.

"If Michael Davis had lived, the punishment wouldn't have been the same and yet it was just as wrong," Goode said.

The hazing tragedy affected the school's search for a new Greek Life coordinator.

After applicants for the job heard what happened, they began withdrawing their applications, Strom said, adding that three wanted to come here and use what happened as a teaching tool.

"That's how we got someone as good as Lisa Fedler," Strom said.

Fedler, who was hired last June, often is asked about the aftereffects of the incident at national conferences she attends.

"People asked me how the students were doing after something like that," Fedler said.

When asked, Fedler tells the truth. "I think students are still struggling with this," she said. "After all, they lost a friend in the worst way."

Strom recommends a video made by the Sigma Chi Fraternity's national chapter. The video is titled "Hazing: Stain of Dishonor."

"It speaks to the issue of mental hazing, which is just as wrong as physical abuse," Strom said. "Sleep deprivation and degrading someone are not part of preparation for brotherhood. But what we must realize is that any individual can haze another individual and that is just as wrong as what a group does to degrade someone."