Paddling is hazing no matter how you try and minimize it

In the Greek fraternity business, the use of a paddle represents hazing. It represents the degradation of your fellow human beings. It represents power and abuse over those who are powerless and seeking acceptance in a group that wielded power on the campus of Gallaudet University.

And yet paddles are still proudly displayed on the fraternity walls like past trophies on the unknown number buttocks they have paddled and caused pain, injury, and suffering.

Carl Schroeder is a Kappa Gamma brother of the 79th Congregation. In his recent blog last month he attempted to minimize Kappa Gamma's use of their paddles on pledges as inconsequential and harmless and by his own admission revealed that paddling was a common practice in Kappa Gamma during his time.

The odd thing about this fraternity pledgehood was its initiation which was, to me, “the battle of wills and wits–alienation and accommodation, as well as affirmation.” I went through a battery of social tests, mental challenges, and physical tolerances. They were well-planned, well-programmed, and well-delivered, and my ego was never in bruise. Yes, I got tired and angry, and, yes, I was made to laugh at times throughout my Fraternity probation–the trial of my character. You can check with my beloved Brother Gary Malkowski of Toronto, Canada, because, as the pledges, we laughed together in public.

Now here are a few words about paddling. The Fraternity paddles were properly introduced to us the pledges. We were asked to accept them as very much a big part of the Kappa Gamma Fraternity. There was one member in our Congregation who did not so he left, for which I am always saddened by his own decision. Paddling itself was never crazy, absurd, or senseless; it was always foretold, explained, and interpreted. We were never subject to humiliation or abusive tricks, and we were never harassed with disagreeable tasks.

Meaning and understanding of the Kappa Gamma Fraternity are socially determined that casts light on the examination of the experience to elucidate these concepts, generating many different things. If one is not a full-fledged Kappa Gamma Brother, he cannot have a multiple concept of this prestigious fraternity, period! For me, as the Kappa Gamma Fraternity Merit Key holder, I am proud to be “the Fraternity man,” especially from Gallaudet University.

My baby brother Gerhard (Olgar) and our father George were also initiated as Kappa Gamma Brothers. It was very cultural for us. I first learned about this precious Fraternity when I was young in the middle school at the Maryland School for the Deaf. After I became initiated into the Blue Brotherhood, I confess to have since been “true to Gallaudet.”

Carl is proud to be a Kappa Gamma brother? He's proud of the fact that his Greek fraternity organization at Gallaudet University was caught hazing and suspended numerous times? Even racism was a factor for one of that fraternity suspension? Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma brothers did a Nazi-like salute in a group photo, by which he continues to remain silent about?  Proud of the fact of how Kevin Clark (a former Kappa Gamma pledge who took Gallaudet University and Kappa Gamma to court for hazing) was dumped at a children's hospital in D.C. after sustaining injuries that night of hazing from paddling causing bruising and bleeding to his buttock? Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma never publicly apologized for their past hazing practices to all the past pledges (those who made it or opted out)?  Proud of the fact that Kappa Gamma never publicly apologized for the Nazi-like salute group photo to the public and to president Hurwitz who is Jewish?  That sure is a long list of stuff to be proud of, Carl. Yet you opted to sidestep the issue or keep quiet about it. Quite curious how you avoided the KG Nazi-like group photo in your blogs but didn't mind discussing the paddling aspect of it one month after I did a few KG blog pieces on paddling and hazing, and the KG group photo.

Paddling is paddling and that is part of hazing no matter how much you try and minimize that, Carl. Every time someone sees a paddle hanging proudly on a fraternity wall means that fraternity has not learned anything about paddling and hazing.  Why are you still covering them, and making excuses for them?

From the wise words of a Kappa Sigma brother seen in the 1990 Tower Clock Gallaudet University Yearbook, page 324:

The benefits they had to offer, frankly, were unequaled by any other organization I knew of and the concept of a warm, strong brotherhood that these men had shared caught my fancy.  another valuable plus about them: they don't haze.   Their stand against hazing and the belief that pledging should be any enrichness and education of character rather than abuse and strict "training and re-education" of minds and bodies only served to further reinforce my initial hunch that this fraternity was the one for me.

Carl, you do not need paddling or hazing in order to have a strong brotherhood. A paddle need not be a big part of a fraternity. That kind of mindset is absolutely warped and sickening. Take the example of Kappa Sigma, a Greek fraternity that does not haze. Paddling has never been a part of their tradition. Compare that to Kappa Gamma when their tradition was obviously steeped with paddling. One thing though, do they still hang their KG paddles on their fraternity walls? If paddles still on their walls mean they still secretly embraced their past tradition of hazing.

Carl, the only way to ease your burdensome thought and embarrassment about Kappa Gamma is to be fully honest about the whole thing.  Reach out to those who have been wronged in the past. Minimizing the whole paddling and hazing history and practices is an attempt to hide the real truth of what really went on. The only way to right a wronged history is to be forthcoming about it honestly and truthfully. Only then will Kappa Gamma come out better and brighter in the future.

"Gallaudet Student Alleges Hitlerite Hazing"

Sticky: For those coming in here from ASL Dragon going by on what Carl commented about PKZ go here because I don't mention PKZ in this blog piece. But continue reading below about how KG did the Nazi salute with a picture as proof.  


The title of my blog comes from an article in Legal Times (June 6, 1994, Vol. XVII, No. 3, page 6) entitled "Gallaudet Student Alleges Hitlerite Hazing" discusses the "Fuhrer Furor" regarding a former student who alleged that Gallaudet University tolerated a supposedly neo-Nazi style fraternity environment promoted by Kappa Gamma. In the article, it has a group photo taken during 1989 the 35 Kappa Gamma brothers doing what it appears to be a Nazi-type salute.

The first impression can be a good or bad one. Doing a salute that looks exactly like a Nazi salute is first and foremost a really bad impression, especially in the age of the internet, for Kappa Gamma and Gallaudet University as a whole.

Say it ain't so with a straight face to the American public.

The current president of Gallaudet University is Dr. T. Alan Hurwitz. He became the tenth president of Gallaudet University on January 1, 2010. He also became the first Jewish person to head the institution in its 145-year history. He is also an honorary Kappa Gamma brother in 1983. And he has a big impact on the Kappa Gamma fraternity in his support of it.

President Hurwitz can be seen attending the 2011 Fall Kappa Gamma march in this video here.

The 1994 Legal Times article is a case dissection of Kevin Clark's lawsuit against Gallaudet University for the 1993 hazing claim against them that has caused him to suffer a "post-traumatic stress syndrome." The article also provided an incredible revelation of a defense response from the university's legal officer about the Kappa Gamma group photo doing what appears to be a Nazi-like salute. Michael Levy who was a partner at D.C.'s Freer and McGarry law firm said he was able to obtain,

a 1989 group photograph of the Kappa Gamma fraternity members engaging in what appears to be a Nazi-style salute. Although the picture is almost 5 years old, Levy says, it shows two of the defendants in the suit apparently saluting. Yet Kelly, the university's legal officer, says that Levy has misinterpreted the photo.  

What the picture shows, Kelly says, is a group of fraternity brothers holding their arms erect in "the equivalent of a secret handshake."  

Besides, Kelly says, several of the fraternity brothers are Jewish, and some are African and Asian-Americans. "It doesn't make sense that these students would be idolizing Adolf Hitler," Kelly says.  

Tessier, the Kappa Gamma member, echoes that sentiment, calling the notion that blacks and Jews would join a neo-Nazi fraternity "ridiculous."

Below is a color group photo but have chosen to cover their faces but not their shirts this time. Their shirts clearly show the Greek letters Kappa Gamma.

The galling claim by Mr. Kelly was that the salute is the equivalent of their "secret handshake" just goes beyond credulity. Why on earth have that kind of salute within a fraternity circle? Something that is instantly recognizable by everybody as nothing more than a Nazi salute using the right arm outstretched, above the shoulder with palm open and flat while facing down just like a Nazi soldier would do using the exact same right arm?

If it's like a "secret handshake" and it's not really an issue then I suppose the Kappa Gamma fraternity as a whole, the 1989 fraternity brothers in the photo, Gallaudet University and president Hurwitz wouldn't be embarrassed about it and would without a second thought allow the photo to be publicly displayed in full? Can president Hurwitz accept Mr. Kelly's claim with a straight face while trying to explain to the American public that it's not a Nazi-style salute but the equivalency of some "super-secret handshake" type of thing? Can you even buy that without shaking your head? Would the American public ever buy that? It's not about the fact that Kappa Gamma doesn't idolize Hitler or that it's not a neo-Nazi type fraternity, that makes sense.  The fraternity is clearly not like that. The problem is how the public sees the photo. Would they see the 35 salutes with arms outstretched and not the fraternity brothers' skin color or their last names based on their Jewish, European, African, or Asian-American descent? Would that salute instantly remind people of the horrors of the Holocaust created by the Nazi and Stalinist parties (which one was worst?)? A time during WWII where millions of innocent people from babies, young children, teens, adults, the elderly, and those with various disabilities, even deaf people, were brutally killed in the planned machinery of mass genocide aimed at Jewish and Polish people, and many others. It was all about race supremacy and maintaining the nth generation bloodline of the "purest of the pure."

Perception and having the first impression is everything.

Another revelation in the Legal Times article was the allegation that,

former student alleges he was blindfolded and forced to endure three hours of  taunts, nazi sloganeering, and wild spatial disorientation in a "confined and overheated" portion of a basement in a university building.   Because he is deaf, Clark says in the complaint, being blindfolded meant being deprived of his crucial remaining sensory ability.  That deprivation, he says, combined with the excruciatingly loud screaming from the fraternity members, contributed to his trauma. Levy says that while his client could not actually hear the loud screams, the noises created vibrations distressing to him.

Nazi sloganeering? Exactly what went on in the Kappa Gamma's? Did they force pledges to do the Nazi-like salute to their brother superiors whenever they were around? Did they say "Heil XXXXX" to one of their higher-ranked brothers while saluting him? Was it a requirement to salute to each other or to higher ranking brothers? What did or did not happen in the stuffy Kappa Gamma basement of hell back in those days? Did the Kappa Gamma brothers continue to experience hazing (probably on a much lower scale and intensity) soon after becoming a brother, too? What's more important is whether that sort of nonsense is occurring today despite Kappa Gamma's strong anti-hazing support.

As for blood-curdling screams they were supposedly heard by a hearing student staying in Krug Hall while attending Gallaudet University to major in Sign Language Interpreting. A claim that lends credence to the allegation of "excruciatingly loud screaming" that went on in the basement of the Kappa Gamma fraternity organization. 

In the face of these new revelations of old, how will president Hurwitz, who is of a strong Jewish heritage, and Kappa Gamma's own history of hazing be able to rectify the group picture Nazi-like salute to the American public? Can president Hurwitz explain that with a straight face to the Jewish people everywhere that the salute in the picture is not a Nazi-style salute? Just a type of a "secret handshake." No harm. No foul. Right? Will president Hurwitz continue to align himself with the Kappa Gamma fraternity as an honorary brother knowing their past?  How will Kappa Gamma rectify their past hazing practices on former pledges and those who didn't make it may still be suffering deserve an apology from them? Who will take the lead? President Hurwitz? The leaders of Kappa Gamma, current and past? Who will have the balls and leadership quality to step forward and do the right thing?

Hazing supposedly ended in 1993 the year when Gallaudet University suspended Kappa Gamma for four years for violating the university's strict anti-hazing policy which began in 1909. Although they were suspended in 1990 for hazing violations and again in 1992 due to accusation by a black pledge of racism, supposedly so if that was really indeed the case. Would performing racist acts to a black pledge be considered a form of hazing?  By pre-emptively suspending the fraternity in 1993 Gallaudet University essentially admitted that hazing did in fact take place in 1993, again, before the lawsuit was ever to begin in court.

Perhaps the best chance for a plaintiff, Fioravanti says, is to prove that the university assumed a duty toward its students by attempting to regulate hazing and then did so negligently. In Clark's case, he alleges that the university knew of the fraternity's hazing and had previously barred the group from campus.

The suit was settled out of court before it ever began which scuttled the chance to explain the pledge's horrors he had to endure. Otherwise had the lawsuit gone through the court process more revelations may have been revealed as part of the whole discovery process legally required of Kappa Gamma and the university to divulge for the plaintiff to have. Suspending Kappa Gamma for hazing before the court proceeding had even started was an interesting way of admitting or acknowledging on what took place. It was better for them to settle out of court than not, and maintain the secrecy in an institution run by many Kappa Gamma brothers in high ranking administrative and staff positions. Kevin Clark did the right thing by taking Kappa Gamma to court. He was a courageous man for doing so and helped open the eyes of the public and gave an extra voice to all of the pledges in all fraternities who were afraid to stand up for themselves.

It's time to clean the gutters of the past and make a better and more respectful Kappa Gamma fraternity and Gallaudet University. Sweeping it under the rug will not help. Do something that will inspire and encourage the public and the deaf community.

UPDATE: Video of deaf athletes doing the "Nazi salute".

Poll: Should Kappa Gamma officially apologize to pledges for past hazing practices?

Here's an online poll. Should the Kappa Gamma fraternity at Gallaudet University officially apologize to all past pledges for hazing them whether they made it into the Kappa Gamma fraternity or not?

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