James Vivenzio–a former brother of the Penn State Kappa Delta Rho fraternity–is now suing Penn State, his fraternity Chapter, KDR Nationals, and two PSU fraternity governance organizations. The lawsuit was just filed on Monday.
We’ve been following the story of Penn State’s Kappa Delta Rho (KDR) fraternity and their suspension for some time now, but this new development from James Vivenzio is more than a little surprising.
Here’s what StateCollege.com revealed about the lawuit:
“James Vivenzio, through his attorney Aaron Freiwald, filed his lawsuit in Philadelphia County court on Monday. In addition to Penn State University and the Penn State KDR chapter, he is also suing the national KDR organization and two Penn State fraternity governance organizations.
‘When I talked to members during KDR rush, they talked about brotherhood and honor,’ said Vivenzio during a Monday morning news conference. ‘But I learned the hard way, the painful way, that the fraternity house was a lot of things, but honorable was not one.’
He accuses the various defendants of negligence, battery, furnishing alcohol to minors, false imprisonment and fraud. He is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for ‘severe injuries and losses, both physically and psychologically,’ according to court documents.”
According to Vivenzio’s allegations, homeboy claims that he went to school eight months before he went to the State College Police Department back in January to report long-running issues of hazing, drug use and a private Facebook page that allegedly hosted photos of nude, unconscious women.
In today’s world of schools where the mindset seems to be “open season on fraternities,” it’s strange to think that PSU wouldn’t have acted on these claims.
Of course, having said that, let’s take a look at the other side. Here are some of the things James Vivenzio describes his fraternity did to him. This is all according to StateCollege.com.
“Freiwald and Viveznio claim pledges were regularly forced to drink excessive amounts of liquor against their will. They say pledges would sometimes be woken in the middle of the night to drink and exercise in the dark, or would be forced to collectively drink a bucket of liquor, hot sauce and urine.
On two separate occasions, Vivenzio was reportedly burned with a cigarette and punched multiple times in the face for attempting to get out of hazing rituals. When he called a university hazing hotline to report the alleged abuse, other fraternity members found out and began to search for “the rat” who reported the alleged abuse, Freiwald says.”
That ish is disgusting. Drinking urine is never cool, nor is being burned with a cigarette. Workouts in the dark? Less severe. James apparently had been collecting evidence proving all of these allegations, so it’s doubtful that he’s lying about the numerous times he and his pledge class were hazed.
And in the interest of reporting as much as possible while trying to keep things interesting, look at what just popped up on reddit’s /r/frat page?
It wouldn’t be fraternity politics without some shades of grey, right?
