Holding Universities & Fraternities Accountable for Hazing: A Comprehensive Guide for Runaway Bay, Texas Families

The Nightmare No Parent in Runaway Bay Should Face

It’s late on a school night. Your phone buzzes with a call from an unfamiliar number in College Station, Waco, or Austin. Your child’s voice is strained, distant. They mumble something about a “mandatory” chapter event, about not wanting to “let the brothers down,” about feeling sick but being told to “tough it out.” The call drops. You try calling back—no answer. That sickening feeling—the one every parent in Runaway Bay, Bridgeport, and across Wise County fears—settles in your stomach. Your child is in a fraternity house, a Corps dorm, or an off-campus apartment, being pushed beyond their limits for the sake of “tradition,” and they’re afraid to ask for help.

This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. It’s happening right now across Texas, including at schools where many Wise County families send their children. And in some of the most severe cases, like the one we’re fighting right now at the University of Houston, it leads to catastrophic, life-altering injuries. We are The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC, operating as Attorney911, and we fight for families in Runaway Bay and across Texas whose children have been hazed, abused, or injured by campus organizations.

If this situation feels frighteningly familiar, please know you are not alone. This guide is for you—the parents, grandparents, and families in Runaway Bay, Alvord, Paradise, and throughout Wise County who need answers, accountability, and a path forward.

IMMEDIATE HELP FOR HAZING EMERGENCIES

• If your child is in danger RIGHT NOW: Call 911 for medical emergencies. Then call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). We provide immediate legal guidance, 24/7.
• In the first 48 hours: Get medical attention immediately, even if your child resists. Preserve evidence: screenshot every group chat, DM, and text; photograph injuries from multiple angles; save any physical items. Write down everything they tell you while it’s fresh. Do NOT confront the organization, sign anything from the university, or let your child delete digital evidence.
• Contact an experienced hazing attorney: Evidence disappears fast. Universities and national organizations move quickly to control the narrative. We can help you preserve evidence and protect your child’s rights from the very first call.

A Texas-Wide Crisis, Anchored by a Horrifying Houston Case

To understand the seriousness and legal complexities of modern hazing, you need to look at what’s happening right now in our own state. We are currently representing Leonel Bermudez, a student whose fall 2025 pledge period at the University of Houston’s Pi Kappa Phi Beta Nu chapter nearly killed him and serves as a stark warning for every Texas family.

The details, as reported by Click2Houston and ABC13, are harrowing. Bermudez was subjected to months of systematic abuse: forced to carry a degrading “pledge fanny pack” 24/7, endure sleep deprivation, act as an on-call chauffeur, and submit to humiliating interviews. The physical hazing escalated to extreme workouts at locations including the fraternity house, a Culmore Drive residence, and Yellowstone Boulevard Park.

In early November 2025, the abuse reached a brutal climax. Bermudez was forced through over 100 push-ups and 500 squats, made to lie in vomit-soaked grass, sprayed in the face with a hose “similar to waterboarding,” and threatened with actual waterboarding. In another known incident, another pledge was hog-tied face-down on a table for over an hour. The forced consumption of milk, hot dogs, and peppercorns until vomiting was followed by immediate punitive sprints.

The medical outcome was catastrophic. Leonel Bermudez developed rhabdomyolysis—a severe breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue—and acute kidney failure. He passed brown urine, could not stand without help, and was hospitalized for four days with critically high creatine kinase levels. He faces an ongoing risk of permanent kidney damage and long-term physical and psychological harm.

This is not an isolated “bad apple” story. Our $10 million lawsuit names a full universe of defendants we believe share responsibility: the University of Houston, the UH System Board of Regents, Pi Kappa Phi’s national headquarters, the Beta Nu housing corporation, and 13 individual fraternity leaders and members, including the chapter president, pledgemaster, and risk manager. Following the lawsuit, Pi Kappa Phi’s national headquarters suspended the chapter on November 6, 2025. On November 14, the chapter members voted to surrender their charter, shutting it down. The University of Houston called the alleged conduct “deeply disturbing” and promised disciplinary action and cooperation with law enforcement.

We lead this case because what happened to Leonel Bermudez is preventable, foreseeable, and part of a dangerous national pattern. For families in Runaway Bay, it proves that the most serious hazing litigation is happening right here in Texas, and that experienced Texas attorneys are already fighting these battles.

The North Texas & DFW Greek Ecosystem: What Runaway Bay Families Are Up Against

Runaway Bay sits in the heart of Wise County, which is part of the massive Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. According to data from our Texas Hazing Intelligence Engine—a proprietary compilation of IRS records, university data, and organizational filings—this metro area is home to an estimated 510 Greek-related organizations. These aren’t just social clubs; they are often formal legal entities with Employer Identification Numbers (EINs), insurance policies, and complex hierarchies.

When your child joins a fraternity or sorority at a DFW-area school or a major Texas university, they aren’t just interacting with other students. They are entering a relationship with a web of organizations that can include:

• Undergraduate Chapter Corporations
• Alumni Housing Corporations
• National Headquarters
• Educational Foundations
• Alumni Chapters

To show you the scale and reality of this system, here is a sample of the kind of public records data we maintain and utilize in our investigations. These are organizations recorded in IRS filings (NTEE code B83) with connections across Texas:

• Beta Upsilon Chi, EIN 74-2911848, Fort Worth, TX 76244 (IRS B83 filing)
• Texas Kappa Sigma Educational Foundation Inc, EIN 74-1380362, Fort Worth, TX 76147 (IRS B83 filing)
• Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, EIN 52-1278573, Dallas, TX 75241 (IRS B83 filing)
• Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, EIN 36-4091267, Waco, TX 76710 (IRS B83 filing)
• Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, EIN 26-3170920, Denton, TX 76204 (IRS filing – Texas Woman’s University)
• Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity Inc, EIN 47-5370943, Houston, TX 77204 (IRS B83 filing – Theta Delta chapter)
• Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, EIN 74-6064445, Nederland, TX 77627 (IRS B83 filing – Epsilon Kappa chapter)
• Sigma Chi Fraternity Epsilon Xi Chapter, EIN 74-6084905, Houston, TX 77204 (IRS B83 filing)
• Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc, EIN 61-1562040, Lewisville, TX 75029 (IRS B83 filing – Phi Psi Zeta chapter)
• Frisco TX Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Inc, EIN 92-0575785, Frisco, TX 75034 (IRS B83 filing)

This is just a glimpse. Statewide, our engine tracks over 1,423 fraternity and sorority organizations across 25 Texas metros. Why does this matter for a Runaway Bay family? Because when hazing occurs, liability and insurance coverage can extend through this entire network. An injury at a Texas A&M chapter house in College Station might involve a housing corporation in Frisco, a national headquarters in Charlotte, and an insurance policy written in New York. Finding every responsible entity requires this level of investigative depth—which is exactly what we bring to every case.

Where Runaway Bay Families Send Their Kids: Local Campuses & Statewide Hubs

The journey from Runaway Bay to college often leads down highways 380, 114, or 287. Families here have deep connections to a wide range of Texas universities, from nearby regional campuses to the state’s flagship institutions.

Local & Regional Universities (within reach of Wise County):

• University of North Texas (UNT) – Denton, TX (~1 hour drive)
• Texas Woman’s University (TWU) – Denton, TX (~1 hour drive)
• Midwestern State University – Wichita Falls, TX (~1.5 hour drive)
• Tarleton State University – Stephenville, TX (~1.5 hour drive)
• Texas A&M University-Commerce – Commerce, TX (~1.5 hour drive)

Major Statewide Universities (Common destinations for top students):

• University of Texas at Austin (UT)
• Texas A&M University (College Station)
• University of Houston (UH)
• Southern Methodist University (SMU)
• Baylor University
• Texas Tech University
• Texas State University

Whether your child is a commuter student at UNT or lives in a dorm at UT Austin, they are exposed to the Greek life ecosystems at those schools. Each campus has its own culture, its own roster of active fraternities and sororities, and its own history of hazing incidents and disciplinary actions.

The Organizations Behind the Letters: National Patterns Meet Texas Campuses

The fraternity that hazed Leonel Bermudez at UH—Pi Kappa Phi—isn’t just a Houston problem. It’s a national organization with chapters across the country and a documented history of fatal hazing incidents, like the 2017 death of Andrew Coffey at Florida State University. This pattern of “prior notice” is critical in litigation. It helps establish that the national organization knew or should have known about the risks of certain “traditions.”

This pattern repeats with other major nationals present on Texas campuses. For example:

• Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE): Has faced hazing allegations and lawsuits at multiple Texas schools, including Texas A&M (chemical burns case, 2021) and UT Austin (assault case, 2024), alongside a national history of alcohol-related deaths.
• Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike): The fraternity involved in the Stone Foltz death at Bowling Green State University ($10M settlement) has chapters at UT, Texas A&M, and other Texas schools.
• Phi Delta Theta: The fraternity involved in the Max Gruver death at LSU (which led to Louisiana’s “Max Gruver Act”) has chapters throughout Texas.

Our data engine cross-references these national brands with their Texas entities. For instance, we can trace how the national brand Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority appears in IRS records in Waco (EIN 36-4091267) and in metro data listings for chapters in Houston and Beaumont. This cross-validation is how we build a complete picture of liability, ensuring no responsible party is overlooked because they operate under a slightly different legal name in a different city.

Texas Hazing Law Explained for Runaway Bay Families

Texas takes hazing seriously in its legal code. The primary law is found in the Texas Education Code, Chapter 37, Subchapter F. Here’s what every Wise County parent needs to know in plain English:

1. The Definition is Broad: Hazing is any intentional, knowing, or reckless act directed against a student for the purpose of pledging, initiation, affiliation, or maintaining membership in an organization. The act must endanger the student’s mental or physical health or safety. It can occur on or off campus.

2. Consent is NOT a Defense: Texas law (Sec. 37.155) explicitly states that the victim’s consent to the hazing activity is not a defense to prosecution. This is crucial. Fraternities often claim, “They wanted to be part of it.” The law recognizes the power imbalance and coercion inherent in these situations.

3. Criminal Penalties Escalate: Hazing is a Class B misdemeanor. If the hazing causes bodily injury (requiring medical treatment), it becomes a Class A misdemeanor. If it causes serious bodily injury or death, it is a state jail felony. Individuals can also be charged for failing to report hazing they were aware of.

4. Organizational Liability: The organization itself (the fraternity, sorority, or team) can be fined up to $10,000 per violation if it authorized or encouraged the hazing or if an officer with knowledge failed to report it.

5. Immunity for Good-Faith Reporters: The law provides protection from civil or criminal liability for anyone who in good faith reports a hazing incident. Many universities extend this to medical amnesty policies to encourage calls to 911.

Civil Liability & Federal Law:
Beyond state criminal law, victims and families can pursue civil lawsuits for damages. These cases are based on theories like negligence, negligent supervision, premises liability, and wrongful death. Furthermore, federal laws like Title IX (if the hazing involves sexual harassment) and the Clery Act (requiring crime reporting) can come into play. The recently enacted Stop Campus Hazing Act will also require more transparency from universities nationwide.

For a Runaway Bay family, this means a hazing case could involve local police (Wise County Sheriff,