I have been driven to write in support of the banning of initiation ceremonies by universities (Family calls for action over son’s drink death, 26 October). In 2015 my daughter was subject to initiation ceremony at another university by a society. She believed the ends of her hair would be dyed pink.
This is what actually happened: after dark and by surprise, she was whisked off a street, blindfolded and put into a van along with a group of the other uninitiated. They were held in a pitch-black cellar and told to look for a box of matches on the floor in order to find a piece of paper. This was a “recipe” for a hooch made from bottles of spirits, which they were instructed to drink. In a drunken state the group was blindfolded again and bundled back into the van and taken to a wood outside the city to find their own way back to the university.
My daughter and I decided not to report it to the university at the time because we were frightened of the retaliation that might ensue from the perpetrators. My daughter went from being happy and getting top grades in some of her papers to being “down” and leaving the university before the end of the year. I was relieved that it didn’t trigger a major mental illness. I regret not speaking out before and am sad to hear a death of the young man at Newcastle University. Please, ban all initiation ceremonies at British universities.
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