“Boys will be boys.”
That appears to be the response from law enforcement, the judicial system and, so far, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, after Kappa Sigma fraternity pledges agreed to participate in a series of hazing incidents that left at least one pledge with burns over a quarter of his body.
Special prosecutor David Michael Dunavant with the Tennessee District Attorney General Conference made the call on the 2024 incident, saying there was not “sufficient evidence to support a prosecution of any person for alleged coercive, obstructive or assaultive criminal conduct related to this incident.”
In the document dated Aug. 12 of this year, he said, “Although the investigation revealed both overt and subtle pressure to comply with these hazardous rituals by fraternity members and chapter leadership, it was ultimately confirmed that both victims voluntarily planned and participated in the act which caused the burn injuries.”
(Hamilton County District Attorney General Coty Wamp had recused herself in the case.)