The mother of the Northwestern University basketball player who killed herself because of severe hazing she endured while pledging to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in the fall of 2016 has filed a federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed this week by Felicia Hankins in U.S. District Court in Illinois, claims that sophomore Jordan Hankins died by suicide in January 2017 in her dorm room due to hazing and “was subjected to physical abuse including paddling, verbal abuse, mental abuse, financial exploitation, sleep deprivation, items being thrown and dumped on her, and other forms of hazing intended to humiliate and demean her.”
In addition to its undergraduate and graduate chapters at Northwestern, the national sorority is named in the lawsuit, as well as the former regional director and multiple individual members.
The Chicago-based sorority issued Friday its first statement on the lawsuit, saying it has a “zero tolerance” hazing policy.