Six members of the Rutgers University sorority Sigma Gamma Rho were arrested Tuesday and charged with aggravated hazing, a felony that carries up to 18 months in jail, in the beating and starvation of pledges that sent one to the hospital.
On Tuesday, New Jersey police arrested Vanessa Adegbite, 21, of Jersey City, Kesha Cheron, 20, of Newark, Llana Warner, 20 of Bronx, N.Y. and Joana Bernard, 21, of West Orange. The next day, police arrested Shawna Ebanks, of East Orange and Marie Charles, of West Orange, both age 21.
The Sigma Gamma Rho pledge told police members of the school’s Sigma Gamma Rho chapter struck her 201 times with a paddle over a one-week and had planned another round of punishment for this week.
A Rutgers University official said six other pledges endured similar beatings as the pledge who reported the alleged hazing. In an interview, the woman who approached police said the beatings took place in a student apartment building and in private homes in Newark and West Orange.
I don’t know what’s most disturbing about this story: that people are still pledging sororities in 2010, that this occurred among students of progressive Rutgers University, known as the Berkeley of The East for it’s supposed enlightened environment, or that this abuse took place among sisters in an African-American sorority – what you would think would be the least likely place you would see this kind of master/slave abuse and terrorization.