AITA for always telling the freshmen that it’s just a hazing?

A second-year software engineering student is being criticized for telling freshmen the truth about a fake presentation deadline hazing tradition. In their first semester, the same prank caused them a severe anxiety attack, landing them in the ER.

They now refuse to let others endure similar stress, but their peers accuse them of “ruining the fun” and claim the prank prepares students for the pressures of corporate life. The student believes perpetuating such cycles is harmful and stands firm, despite backlash. read the original story below…

‘ AITA for always telling the freshmen that it’s just a hazing? ‘

I’m finishing my second year on Software Engineering. On my first semester, news went around about a presentation worth 50% of our grade, and that it was already too late to submit it. Now, I’m gullible af due to autism, and also have severe anxiety.

Being a nearly straight-A student, I’m always attentive to deadlines, so it came as a complete shock for me. They messed with the college website’s front end to forge prints, and being my first time doing online college, I wasn’t familiar with the system, and couldn’t find any information.

It’s important to say that there was a point when I reached out on one of their DMs and begged the person to tell me the truth, explained about my anxiety and everything. They persisted, and everything spiraled from there.

I was soon on the ER due to a strong anxiety attack, since I didn’t had any meds at home, having been previously able to keep it under control. Now, every time they pull this stunt on freshmen, I straight up tell them the truth.

The “pranksters” are mad that I’m “spoiling all the fun”, and that “they need to learn not to trust everything people say”, and that “they went through the same and are fine”. The point is: I hate perpetuating this kind of cycles, and hate the mentality of “if I had to suffer, so do you”.

Therefore, I refused to stop, and they’re saying that I’m not preparing these kids for the “corporate life”, that they need to learn to handle the pressure, etc. I responded with “I doubt any corporate would continuously gaslight their employees with a non-existent deadline,

and even if they do, we’ve reached the point where they could end up being rightfully sued”. They’re all mad at me, and a friend even pulled me aside and said I should just let them because “boys will be boys”. I don’t think I’m in the wrong, but I really need unbiased opinions.. So, AITA?

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

Puzzleheaded-Age-240 −  NTA – I’m so sorry this absurd prank caused you so much trauma. Not that you need to parade your pain for others if you don’t want to, but this feels like something that could cause trauma to many students and

some of them may understand the risk they’re taking if you can share a bit of what this cruelty did to you. It’s not funny, it’s not helpful in any way, it’s just mean. Really this should be reported to the school. 

Downtown-Put1924 −  Not only are you NTA, you are a hero without a cape. Anyone participating in such buffoonery can get f’d in the ear. Hold onto those morals right and tight, you’re a rockstar!

BarryisLost −  NTA… it’s stupid and immature. This, in no way, will prepare anyone for the corporate world. I work in the corporate world and it’s nothing like that. Sure, there will be tight deadlines and the stress that comes with it, that’s life at any job.

Just because other people did it to them does not mean they need to do it to others. Good on you for breaking the cycle and refusing to play their game.

3r14nd −  Are you telling me they are hacking the college website to change s**t? Even if they do actually have legit access to the website, I’m sure it’s against the rules of the college to change it just to mess with people.

Most colleges have rules against hazing so even if you don’t want to report the hazing, the messing with the website is something that should be reported because if they are messing with it, they can really s**ew with other peoples experience and can cause them to fail. Just curious, what do you mean by “forge prints”

PaynIanDias −  NTA… hazing/pranking or not, as long as is forced on EVERYONE without consent , is a big no for me. The whole pranking/hazing thing is just stupid in my opinion..

LowBalance4404 −  NTA and you are doing a great thing. I actually work in the corporate world and I’m also in IT. We don’t haze employees. That’s called creating a “hostile work environment” and is a fire-able offense. I’m also an IT Program Manager and this type of behavior is not tolerable on my team. It could f**k up deadlines and deliverables.

xhelloxhi −  NTA, this is a stupid prank and frankly I would be pissed if someone tricked me like that.

sailor_moon_knight −  NTA Jesus f**king christ. Back in my college days I was a n**rotic high achiever too, and also had garbage mental health. There’s like a 50/50 chance this would have made me drop out and a 10% I would have just f**king killed myself. F**k that, this is not a g**damn frat.

Cool-Equivalent986 −  NTA, and thank you for standing up to bullies.

GuyentificEnqueery −  NTA. Hazing of any kind is illegal in many states now because it had led to deaths. While that’s obviously more of an issue for hazing involving drugs or stunts, suicide is a real thing to consider as well. Here’s a personal anecdote about how serious these little things can get.

I once knew a TA who was an international student. He came to my office to pick up a bundle of tests and was a little distracted, and after he signed off that he had picked up the tests from me (the proctor) he left the stack behind.

I didn’t notice until it was closing time and didn’t want to reboot my work computer to send him a message, so I put it off to the morning. The man was there at the opening for the office the next day, before I was even there, and basically collapsed in relief when I told him that I still had the tests.

He told me that he had spent the entire night frantically retracing his steps looking for the missing test papers all over campus, in the dark, and that this was the last place he was going to check before he jumped off a nearby bridge. He was practically crying so I believe he wasn’t joking.

His home country has very, very high expectations for the very few people who have the privilege to study abroad and a failure of that magnitude was just unacceptable to him. To me it was a simple mistake but to him it was life ending. You never know what someone’s breaking point is going to be.

If the prank isn’t something that a person can laugh about in the moment, like a whoopie cushion, or everyone showing up to class in the same outfit, or a stupid fake story about the mummified remains of the first university president being on display in the basement of the main campus office, it’s not a good prank.

Is the student justified in breaking the cycle of hazing, or should they let the tradition continue for the sake of “teaching lessons”? What do you think? Share your thoughts below!