A second lawsuit against a College of Charleston fraternity on social probation accuses its members of hazing a student to the extent he withdrew from school to try to escape the torment which led to post-traumatic stress disorder.
William Ide and his family are seeking unspecified damages against the College of Charleston, the Iota Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Chi fraternity, the National Sigma Chi organization, unnamed advisers to the chapter and eight individually named members of the fraternity.
The Charleston County Circuit Court lawsuit, filed April 30, accuses the fraternity and its members of engaging in yearslong physical and virtual harassment and stalking that began when he pledged with Sigma Chi and continued long after he left Charleston. The hazing he was subjected to in 2021 escalated to torture, according to the lawsuit, and resulted in the first of several mental health hospitalizations.
Ide, a varsity hockey player in high school, began his freshman year at the College of Charleston in fall 2021. He was well-adjusted and had a healthy social life, according to the lawsuit, until he rushed that fall and pledged to Sigma Chi.
The lawsuit states the hazing and abuse began Sept. 10, 2021, when fraternity members gagged the pledges with their socks. Members of the fraternity allegedly poured kitchen condiments on pledges, hurled eggs at them, pelted them with empty and full beer cans, and punched and kicked them. They grabbed Ide and poured vodka into his sock-gagged mouth until he choked, according to the lawsuit.
The abuse continued and included forcing Ide to curl dumbbells until he was exhausted and to drink a half-full keg of stale beer even after he choked, vomited and blacked out. Ide contends he was also forced to smoke what might have been a potent strain of marijuana or synthetic marijuana known as “K2” or “spice.”
The lawsuit states that when Ide begged for mercy, the brothers ridiculed him and made videos to spread around the fraternity and to other students.
The night ended with the brothers ordering him to hang pictures, handing him a hammer and tacks. Ide was so drunk that he spent several hours smashing his fingers and hands as the brothers cheered and recorded him injuring himself, according to the lawsuit.
On Sept. 17, 2021, when his parents visited, they were so alarmed they took him to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with PTSD. The fraternity dropped Ide from his pledge class because of the hospitalization, the lawsuit stated.
“At first, Will was relieved, thinking that this living hell was over,” the lawsuit reads. “He was wrong.”
The abuse chronicled in the April 30 lawsuit echoes that of a January lawsuit filed by Jennifer Burnett, an Anderson-based attorney, on behalf of Benjamin Jaxson Lovelace, a Greenville native. Many of the described acts of hazing detailed in Burnett’s suit, which occurred in February 2023, mirror those described in Ide’s pledge run in September 2021.
Burnett settled a wrongful death lawsuit for the family of Tucker Hipps, 19, who died at Clemson University in 2014 after he fell off a bridge in a pledge run. The incident led lawmakers to pass the Tucker Hipps Transparency Act, which requires colleges to report hazing violations by university fraternities and sororities.
The College of Charleston issued a cease and desist order to the Iota Epsilon Sigma Chi fraternity on Feb. 24, 2023, in response to reports of hazing, according to the College of Charleston website.
Iota Epsilon resumed operation at the beginning of the year after a review by the chapter’s national headquarters, The Post and Courier previously reported. A remedial plan requires members to participate in leadership training. The fraternity is under social probation until spring 2025.
The local Sigma Chi chapter had hazing violations and alcohol abuse in 2013, 2014 and 2016, according to the lawsuit. Five campus fraternities closed in 2017 after reports of underage drinking, drug trafficking and sexual assault. That year, the university’s president banned alcohol at all fraternity and sorority events.
Michael Church, executive director of the Sigma Chi International Fraternity, said in an email that Sigma Chi does not comment on active litigation. Fraternity president and College of Charleston student Noah McAden did not return a request for comment.
Michael Robertson, a College of Charleston spokesman, said in a statement that the university does not condone any form of hazing.
“This lawsuit alleges behavior which runs contrary to our institutional values and violates our policies,” he said. “We take all such allegations seriously, will thoroughly investigate each, and take disciplinary action when appropriate.”
According to Ide’s lawsuit, the fraternity continued to stalk, harass and abuse Ide daily after it dropped him from its pledge class. They waited outside his dorm to threaten and yell slurs at him. They constantly called and texted Ide’s phone to tell him to leave the school, the lawsuit stated.
He dropped out of the university in February 2022 after another hospitalization.
The fraternity continued its harassment of Ide through texts, Venmo requests and other unwanted contacts even after he returned to Florida, according to the lawsuit.
After extensive therapy, Ide enrolled at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton in the fall of 2022. He continued to struggle with his mental health but made friends, according to the lawsuit, including members of the Florida Atlantic University Sigma Chi chapter. When Ide told his friends about his pledge experience, they were appalled, the lawsuit states. They told him they didn’t haze and he was asked to join the fraternity.
Members of Charleston Sigma Chi called the Florida Atlantic University chapter during the last week of his pledge period, calling him names and telling the Florida members not to admit Ide because “he could get them all in trouble.” The Florida Atlantic University chapter ignored them and allowed him to join, according to the lawsuit.
Members of College of Charleston’s Sigma Chi took it a step further, according to the lawsuit. They showed up at the Florida Atlantic University chapter’s celebration for new members and taunted Ide.
“All the progress Will had made with his mental condition had been completely erased,” the lawsuit reads.
By fall 2023, he could not maintain work and dropped several of his classes. The lawsuit states his condition worsened through the rest of the year.
“He remains to this day under continuing physician supervision and treatment for PTSD, panic disorder and extreme anxiety,” according to the lawsuit.