Recently, social media has been resurfacing an incident that happened in 2024, after new “disturbing” videos recorded through police body cameras have become available to the public. These videos are from an alleged hazing incident that involved 56 new students at the University of Iowa. The incident later resulted in the fraternity house’s suspension on February 25th, and the suspension is expected to be lifted by at least July first of 2029, 5 years later. According to ABC7, the first responding campus police were notified of a fire alarm going off in the house. Upon entering, the police encountered the alleged incident.
The video footage shows the police entering Iowa’s Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house in November of 2024 after receiving the initial fire alarm. After finding no fire in the fraternity, the police checked the rest of the building to ensure the safety of the students. When cops entered the basement, they found the root of the call. In accordance with KKCI, what police encountered was 56 shirtless and blindfolded pledges, covered in substances, standing against the walls of a dark and silent basement. The hazing attempt to humiliate these new students was alleged to be an attempt to get accepted into the fraternity.
In the video, the police officer enters the basement where he is heard asking, “Whose in charge?” One of the house members hesitates to reply; he evades the question and eventually leaves to go upstairs. When the officer asked the same question to the pledges, one of them responded with “They’re upstairs.” he then commanded the men multiple times to leave and to explain what was going on, but he did not receive over a few words of response or any clear explanation because they did not want to lose the chance of being accepted into the fraternity. When the officer is heard asking, “What’s all over you guys?” one person replies with “Just Water”. Later, the substances found on the pledges were reported to be a mix of ketchup, mustard, and alcohol. Again, when he asked, “Does anyone wanna be forthcoming on what’s going on?” no one answered.
Later, the cop begins questioning the house members; they tell him they aren’t in charge of what is going on, and they can ask the house dad. Despite this, apparently the house dad was out of town “working in summit”, but not a single member had his number or a way to contact him.
A member of the fraternity, 21-year-old Joseph Gaya, was charged with interference with an investigation because he was trying to cover up the incident by preventing officers from entering and seeing what was going on in the basement. His charges were eventually dropped. No one was reportedly harmed or forced against their will, and anyone involved in arranging the hazing incident was removed from membership and received anti-hazing training.
Although no one was harmed, hazing can be extremely dangerous because it often involves dangerous, humiliating, or illegal activity that individuals are forced to take part in to join some sort of group. Hazing often involves physical and mental abuse or forces individuals to consume strange substances. As it often occurs on college or high school sports teams, it is important to be aware of what hazing is so one can avoid such incidents.
