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'I live in constant fear': Fraternity suspended after UC Davis student alleges hazing

Ishani Desai, The Sacramento Bee on

Published in News & Features

The 19-year-old was diagnosed with anxiety disorder, a “state of emotional shock and stress, unspecified” and other “specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances,” according to a patient clinical summary provided by Tran.

“Physically, client reports some weakness from not eating properly over the last two weeks, but reports immediately feeling better as a result of deciding to drop pledging,” according to the ER report he provided to The Bee. “Still, he is worried that others in the fraternity will decide to come after him to encourage him not to report.”

Shame and embarrassment flooded Tran as he grappled with the fraternity’s treatment, he said.

“It was just ... this group of people were willing to dehumanize you and humiliate you for ... their own gain with like … no meaningful intention behind it,” he said.

He dropped pledging for Alpha Kappa Psi after he returned from the ER and said he doesn’t think he will participate in future Greek life events, one of the biggest being this weekend with Picnic Day, a larger community celebration and open house dating back to 1909.

While Picnic Day activities attract families on campus during the day and generally remain calm, the weekend has been marred in some years by off-campus parties that involved excessive drinking, rowdiness and fights in the downtown area. The low point came in 2011 when a UC Davis graduate died at an off-campus party.

“I am constantly hyperaware and paranoid about being watched by active brothers,” Tran said. “I live in constant fear of being yelled at by active brothers.”

Tran said he wants an apology from the fraternity — as well as his medical bills paid.

 

“Really, I am more angry,” he said. “I still haven’t received any apology from any member at all.”

All fraternities and sororities must abide by university policies, which ban hazing. Hazing includes activities causing physical harm, depriving students of sleep, hosting activities interfering with academic efforts and subjecting pledges to “cruel or unusual psychological conditions,” according to UC Davis’ community policies for campus Greek life.

The hospital report said Tran has a history of anxiety attacks that he says had been resolved in prior years. Those attacks were less severe when he was in high school, and not as bad as the one resulting from the alleged hazing.

Students are encouraged to report hazing through the campus’ online reporting form, Kisliuk said.

Tran said he wants justice for his case, and is trying not to let this one experience define his time in college.

“If it was not me, it was going to be the next person,” he said. “I didn’t want this to happen to someone else.”

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©2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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