EDITORIAL - Sisterhood of sadists

The student was blindfolded and made to kneel down. Then schoolmates took turns beating her back and thighs with a belt and stick. Her hair was pulled and she was slapped repeatedly. Melted candle wax was poured down her back.

Such scenes have been reported in initiation rites conducted by fraternities in many of the country’s colleges and universities. But this one was attributed by police investigators to a sorority, and the victim is a teenage tourism student, Larissa Colleen Alilio.

The victim collapsed from her hours-long ordeal at a house in Las Piñas reportedly at the hands of members of the Tau Gamma Sigma sorority, but fortunately she is recuperating in a hospital. What’s uncertain is whether she will ever fully recover from the trauma of violence inflicted by a group that is supposed to promote sisterhood.

Alilio’s mother said the victim was bullied and threatened by the sorority into joining their group at the Lyceum of the Philippines. The school has said it does not recognize any sorority or fraternity. Alilio’s ordeal should prompt administrators in all educational institutions to tighten their monitoring of such activities.

Several deaths and severe beatings attributed to initiation rites prompted the passage of Republic Act 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law in 1995. But hazing deaths continued, even in the country’s top universities. Sororities also jumped into the fray, possibly inspired by fraternity brothers, with young women giving full rein to their bestial tendencies. Even sororities in medical schools, where students hope to join a profession dedicated to saving lives and healing injuries, engage in dangerous, juvenile initiation rites.

What values are supposed to be imparted in such senseless violence? No wonder there is little public protest against the continuing slaughter of drug suspects. President Duterte has said that shabu fries the brains of users permanently; the damage inflicted by hazing has to be worse.

If parents and educators are unable to stop such activities, police must ensure that those who engage in hazing are arrested and penalized. Everyone who participated in torturing Larissa Colleen Alilio must be caught, expelled from their school and meted the full force of the law.