The courts, not JSU administration or this editorial board, will determine the fate of those accused. Those 13 suspects deserve fair and impartial justice.
Regardless of the case’s outcome, the salacious hazing accusations contained in a lawsuit filed by a former Alpha Phi Alpha pledge at JSU should reaffirm the belief that hazing is an often-violent, dehumanizing practice that’s incompatible with normal society.
Hazing holds long histories with social, athletic and military groups, usually couched within a weak concept of dues-paying and team-building.
That’s laughable.
Too often, hazing — even if intended to be non-violent — degrades into personal attacks and embarrassing situations that can have dire results. Hazing’s days as a trivial matter among friends or teammates have long passed. It’s now a crime.
Now is the perfect opportunity for JSU and Calhoun County’s high schools to preach — loudly — about hazing’s dark side. Education, obviously, is the key.
