His eighth-grade class at MacDonald Middle School voted him the funniest student with the best smile, who was most likely headed for a career as an actor.
Matthew Epling had enough friends in his back pocket to assure an unforgettable four years of high school that the 14-year-old would have started in the fall of 2002.
But Matthew never had the chance to turn the combination on his lock at East Lansing High School or witness a football game under Friday night's lights. About a month after the last day of school, Matthew committed suicide. His family believes that decision was influenced by the hazing he had endured.
The last day of his eighth-grade year, Matthew was hazed off school grounds by three high school upperclassmen who vowed to him that his high school experience would be "hell." The hazing started with foolish pranks, as three assailants smeared Matthew with raw eggs and syrup. The three boys physically restrained Matthew outside of his home and told him he shouldn't tell anyone.
"You have to understand - in my son's case, it wasn't just tossing eggs. He was physically restrained and threatened not to tell," said his father, Kevin Epling.
Hazing laws in Michigan have sparked controversy in recent months, with the state being one of seven without anti-hazing laws in place. New legislation proposed by state lawmakers hopes to stop the behavior, which is outlawed in 43 states.
The move follows an incident in September at the University of Michigan that left a 21-year-old male student hospitalized after he and seven other fraternity pledges were forced to perform rigorous exercises for hours without food or water, causing muscle breakdown and kidney failure. The student is on kidney dialysis and sees a doctor three times a week.
Interfraternity Council President Anthony Morabito said the greek community at MSU sets examples for its organizations to demonstrate the widespread effects of hazing and emphasize the repercussions.
"Hazing has no positive effect at all," he said. "People think it can force people to be more loyal or shape them to think they are part of the group."
The MSU greek community dealt with a hazing incident in April 2002 when Pi Kappa Phi was suspended and had its members evicted after new members entered the Mason and Abbot hall cafeterias wearing sleeveless pink T-shirts with the phrases "Capt. Gay Sex" and "Fag Hairstylist" written on the backs.
In a sports hazing incident at MSU, the women's soccer team became the subject of an Internet report on the Web site www.BadJocks.com, a site dedicated to criminal sports activity. The Web site reported inSeptember that the woman told her Case Hall floormates she had her body covered in adult diapers and had her legs spray painted red and white, turning her into "a giant tampon" for an initiation ceremony. After her transformation, she said she was forced to sing the "Michigan State Fight Song" at full volume for an hour.
Head coach Tom Saxton, an ex-MSU soccer player, said the hazing incident by his team was a part of the college experience and that he would use the scenario to teach his team that hazing is an unacceptable practice that can result in negative consequences.
In Matthew's case, when he told his father what the older students had done, Kevin's emotions turned to anger.
"I was honestly very upset when it happened," Kevin said. "Once I knew my son had been harassed physically, I knew it was time to contact the police so this wouldn't happen to anybody else.
"I was very upset, angry at the time. This is something very disrespectful. I was angry at the older kids that were disrespectful to my son."
Kevin said the police didn't react immediately when his family contacted the department about Matthew's attack. Kevin said the time after the incident was a "gray area," since he is unsure if his son was attacked further after the initial incident.
Since the incident, Kevin sends out e-mails about Senate Bill 92, the anti-hazing legislation, and says being active in the community helps him deal with the loss of his son.
"My son tried to resist, and this is when it becomes violent," he said. "No one knows how devastating a hazing prank can be on someone."
The aftermath of hazing
After Matthew's death, action finally was taken in the incident. The three attackers were interviewed by police two weeks after his death. One of the attackers was charged with assault and battery and given a year of probation, and the other two were handed lesser sentences, Kevin said.
Other states strike down such behavior through university expulsion, disciplinary action or a misdemeanor.
But anti-hazing legislation doesn't have to make its way to Michigan, according to MSU-DCL College of Law Professor Jack Apol. He said if the actions fit the crime, some instances of hazing can be prosecuted under established assault and battery laws.
"Battery is unlawful offensive touching of a human being," the criminal law professor said. "I don't need a hazing statute to prosecute this."
The MSU soccer incident was handled internally by the team and the athletics administration. MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason said all MSU athletes are given a student-athlete conduct book, and there has been an ongoing education program established to emphasize student-athlete conduct. Mason added that coaches are instructed to teach their athletes about the consequences that come with their possible off-field conduct.
"Any student athlete shouldn't be coerced to do what they don't want to do - or anyone who's not an athlete for that matter," Mason said.
MSU psychology Professor Gary Stollak said when a situation such as the women's soccer incident presents itself, it should be the coach who steps in and solves the issue at hand.
"'If I want to make the team, I'm willing to take this abuse,'" Stollak said. "And the coaches permit it, because a coach went through it 25 years ago when he or she was an athlete."
Bob Reno, who runs the Web site www.BadJocks.com, said the site has reported 33 incidents of sports hazing since the beginning of the year.
"On average, I would say I get half of what's out there, and I would say only half of these incidents are actually getting reported," Reno said. "When you look at it, there's about one a week."
Hazing incidents
Seven states currently don't have hazing laws in place - Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming. In an effort to end hazing in the state, Michigan lawmakers are trying to create statutes similar to those passed in other states by creating an anti-hazing bill by the end of the year.
ESPN.com reports that the attention sports hazing has received from the news media didn't ignite until 1980, and it has increased steadily since then.
The first case to receive widespread attention happened at the University of Michigan in 1980 when five freshman hockey players reportedly were given large amounts of alcohol at an upperclassman's off-campus house. The freshmen were stripped, shaved, covered with jam, eggs and cologne and left outside in the cold to survive the elements for 90 minutes.
In May, a game of touch football turned into a grotesque hazing ceremony that led to an investigation by police and school officials at suburban Chicago's Glenbrook North High School.
The school's annual "powder puff" game, pitting the junior and senior girls against each other at a local park, turned to mayhem, as the juniors were beaten, splattered with paint and had mud and feces thrown in their faces. The end result: five girls in the hospital, one with a broken ankle and another needing 10 stitches in her head. The game was an unsanctioned school event.
In 1999, the University of Vermont received much attention centered on its ice rink, too. A hazing ritual by the Vermont hockey team turned sour and resulted in legal action against the university. Allegations of improper sexual touching, in which rookie players were forced to grab each other's genitals in a practice known as the "elephant walk," alcohol consumption and other hazing practices were confirmed by a state investigation.
Although there have been numerous hazing studies, there still are unanswered questions about the practice, said MSU kinesiology Professor Deb Feltz, a sports psychologist whose research is focused on team confidence.
"Why does this continue? I've heard stories and read in newspaper articles that team members feel this builds team unity, but there's no evidence for it," Feltz said.
"I have seen nothing in terms of research that would indicate that hazing contributes to more confidence in the team or collective confidence, or more team building or higher team goals."
The largest piece of research on the subject of sports hazing was conducted by Alfred University in upstate New York. The university tackled the subject after canceling a football game in 1998 when an upperclassman player was expelled and six other players suspended for alchohol-related hazing on campus.
Alfred University's research, conducted during the 1998-99 school year, included 325,000 athletes from more than 1,000 NCAA schools. Athletes were given surveys prefaced with Alfred University's definition of hazing, which states that hazing "is an activity expected of a person joining a group that is used to humiliate or degrade the individual in some way." The definition also states that hazing doesn't include activities such as making freshman players carry the team's supplies to the practice field and happens in an environment where danger can become evident.
Of the 325,000 athletes, 250,000 said they experienced some form of hazing to join a sports team. One in five was forced into potentially dangerous or illegal hazing. Half surveyed said alcohol was involved. Two-thirds were subjected to humiliating practices such as being yelled at, wearing embarrassing clothing or deprived of sleep, food and personal hygiene. MSU athletes didn't participate in the survey.
But Stollak said hazing exemplifies the abuse of power that exists in team sports, greek organizations and schools.
"High school students and college students are not powerful people; they might be looked up to by no end of people like Hitler was, but if they're going to try to kill the Jews or hurt the freshmen is the same thing - we're going to pick on the powerless," Stollak said.
"And however it's phrased, like, 'I went through it so these people must go through it,' has never been a defense.
"We call that diffusion of responsibility - 'We're all the seniors we can do this to the freshmen.' Or, 'We went through this as fraternities when we were initiated for the last 200 years of this fraternity. We're going to keep doing it even if it results in death.'"
Stollak believes the practice of hazing to be fear-induced.
"It's always, 'Who's going to take my job?'" Stollak said. "If I'm a starting quarterback, it's only for this throw. At any minute the coach has four quarterbacks."
This competition of bests farther than the field or court, he said.
"Without being silly this happens in orchestra in high school," Stollak said. "I'm the first violinist, but every week there is a competition as to who is the concertinist."
Since the incident with his son, Kevin Epling said he's been a member of the Safe School Task Force and speaks at high schools on hazing.
"It's given me a place to channel all my grief," he said. "Matthew's death is something that will always be with me. We have to keep on living life for Matthew."
Paul Day can be reached at daypaul@msu.edu.
