Ole Miss fraternity gets 4-year suspension after pledge ingests bleach, officials say
The University of Mississippi has suspended a campus fraternity following an alleged hazing incident involving a bottle of bleach that sickened a pledge in October 2020.
Charter for the Gamma Iota chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity will remain suspended through May 2025 after an investigation “uncovered acts of hazing,” the university announced in a statement Wednesday, Nov. 10.
“The [Pi Kappa Alpha] international fraternity and university arrived at this decision together following a joint inquiry into the incidents,” officials wrote. “Hazing and related behavior that puts student health and safety at risk are contrary to the University of Mississippi Creed and will not be tolerated.”
All operations of the campus fraternity were immediately halted, according to the statement. A letter also sent to the Ole Miss fraternity and sorority community noted that Pi Kappa Alpha was “already subject to an administrative agreement” with the university’s office of student conduct due to hazing violations it says the chapter committed last fall.
One of the alleged incidents unfolded during an event at the chapter’s fraternity house on Oct. 11, 2020, WHBQ reported, citing a police report. An anonymous pledge detailed the events of that night when a Pi Kappa Alpha member reportedly sprayed cleaning solution into a pledge’s mouth.
“At this particular Sunday meeting, while everyone was blindfolded an active (member) grabbed a bottle of bleach or surface cleaner and started spraying it on a few pledges, during this time one of the pledges through [sic] up from inhaling some of the substance in his mouth and another had to go to the hospital because he got bleach in his eyes,” the pledge told police, according to WHBQ.
Adam Peavy, an attorney for the injured student, told the Associated Press that his client was expecting a drink of water but was sprayed with bleach instead, swallowing “two or three gulps.” The incident landed him in a hospital.
“He was blindfolded and poisoned,” Peavy told the AP in April. “That’s what happened.”
Frat member James Bowes Higgins was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, the news outlet reported.
An online petition asking the university not to suspend the Pi Kappa Alpha Gamma Iota chapter had more than 1,300 signatures as of Nov. 11. Parents of the fraternity members who launched the petition said they “don’t condone hazing in any form” but feel the four-year suspension is too harsh a punishment.
“The chapter provides a second family for our boys and they infuse a great deal of philanthropy in the local community,” the document reads, in part. “The nominal amount of students involved in the current incident have already been removed from the fraternity leaving their new brothers to bear the consequences of their actions.”
It’s unclear if university officials plan to revisit the decision.
In a statement, the Pi Kappa International Fraternity said it’s working with Ole Miss to close any outstanding chapter operations and assist students who may be displaced by the chapter’s suspension.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 9:50 AM with the headline "Ole Miss fraternity gets 4-year suspension after pledge ingests bleach, officials say."