Dive Brief:
- A former Francis Marion University student and fraternity “hell week” hazing victim has won a $1.6-million verdict against a Phi Beta Sigma member.
- Daniel McElveen, who was hospitalized after a night of hazing in 2011, had received out-of-court settlement agreements from the university and the fraternity in December.
- The lawsuit’s defendant, Maurice Robinson, was an alumnus of the university and a Florence, S.C., high school teacher who hosted the fraternity’s brutal paddle-beating initiation in his home.
Dive Insight:
Here’s another step toward the elimination of what will hopefully soon be an outdated ritual. McElveen suffered acute renal failure after the beating, was hospitalized for eight days, and dropped out of Francis Marion University, The (South Carolina) State reported. Nine men were arrested following the incident. McElveen received $15,000 from an insurance fund on behalf of the university and is supposed to re-enroll to finish his schooling. Among the hazing incidents that McElveen was forced to endure: Eating unidentified foods, being blindfolded and driven off campus, wearing dirty clothes, and sleep deprivation.