Police are investigating whether two Ohio State University students who were treated for deep burns after being engulfed in flames at an outdoor fraternity party were victims of hazing.
The university placed the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on interim suspension after a video circulated on social media showing a large group surrounding two young men on fire Saturday. The video shows a ring of people standing outside, many wearing the school’s red and white colors, laughing and shouting at two men on the ground with their pants on fire. One lunges at the other, and they both roll on the ground. The shouting takes on a more panicked tone as they struggle to remove their clothing. One onlooker holds a small fire extinguisher but doesn’t successfully deploy it. Ohio Gov. The law’s definition of hazing includes participating in or coercing anyone into behavior that creates a substantial risk of mental or physical harm and is tied to initiation into an organization or continued membership.
A student who watched the video called police the next day to report a possible hazing incident, according to an audio recording of the call. The victims were both students who were treated for “moderate” second- and third-degree burns, according to the Columbus Police report. The university has not said how the fraternity is linked to the event, but the report lists the president of the fraternity as part of the investigation. Mike DeWine signed “Collin’s Law” in 2021 toughening penalties for hazing in the wake of a student’s death at a fraternity house at Ohio University.
In 2022, 46 members of the SAE chapter at the University of New Hampshire were charged with hazing.
Most agreed to perform community service and avoided conviction; the three who went to trial were acquitted because the judge said the state didn’t prove the acts were a “condition of initiation into, continued membership in or association with” the fraternity.
