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This doesn't look like ratfucking
A former UC Davis student is suing the university, claiming school officials didn't put an end to over-the-top hazing in 2008 when he was pledging the all-Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi.
According to the claim filed in Yolo County, Ryan Clifford was on a retreat in Lake Tahoe with his frat brothers when he and other pledges were forced to drink "inordinate amounts of alcohol" and consume beverages laced with unknown narcotics.
But what started out as typical college hazing turned into an evening reminiscent of the movie the Hangover --- it was a night of drugs, strippers, fights, sexual assaults, topped off with some serious "ratfucking."
Clifford says at some point in the night , his fraternity brothers undressed him and touched his penis while making sexual comments. His lawyers argue that he was targeted because he was the only pledge that wasn't Jewish.
During the retreat another pledge's mother called the university to report the awful hazing, and Clifford's mother also made a call to school officials to point out the hazing violations. The calls from pledges' parents didn't go over well with the boys back home. According to the claim:
During and after the Tahoe retreat, Ryan and other pledges were chastised and ridiculed and subjected to threats of violence because of the complaints by the pledges' parent to the university, which underminded the fraternity's rigid code of silence."
The hazing didn't just continue -- it got worse. On Nov. 5, 2008, pledges were again ordered to consume excessive amounts of alcohol. When Clifford refused, he was ordered to put on a padded vest and was punched in the stomach several times. Afterward, one frat member choked him and stomped on his foot. The attack left him with multiple fractures to his foot which required two surgeries. He now has lessened range of motion, a permanent limp, and chronic pain, according to the lawsuit.
Two days before the attack, then-Director of the university's Office of Student Programs Paul Cody placed the fraternity on "conditional registration" for seven months. However, Clifford complained that the university did nothing to monitor the fraternity or follow up to enforce the new requirements until three weeks before he filed a lawsuit.
Clifford continued to complain about the persistent harassment from members of the fraternity who were also in his classes. Clifford was advised by the university to drop his classes and quit school.
"Ryan was 6.5 credits short of the required credits for graduation in Spring 2010," according to the complaint.
Clifford claims the university failed to "administer its duties
under its student policies to investigate and address formal and
informal complaints of harassment and discrimination, discipline student
organizations for hazing and alcohol consumption, and/or report abuse
to the authorities for prosecution."
SF Weekly contacted the fraternity, but we have not hear back yet. If anything, we want to know what exactly it means to ratfuck a fraternity brother.
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