Miss America admits sorority hazing, denies severity of accusations

Newly crowned Miss America Kira Kazantsev isn’t saying she never hazed anyone at her sorority, but she’s denying the details alleged in a recent report that brought to light the fact she’d been kicked out of Alpha Phi at Hofstra University.

“All I can do is sit here and be honest and share that, yes, I was involved under the broad definition of hazing at some point,” Kazantsev said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” “But never ever in a million years,” she said, did she bring it to the level described in a Jezebel story on Monday.

The allegations are “just not true,” she said, adding that she was hurt by the accusations.

Jezebel said its tipster alleged that Kazantsev and another member who were in positions of authority relative to new recruits called pledges names, berated them for their perceived physical flaws and imperfections and made them perform physical tasks to the point of bruising and exhaustion.

As recruitment committee president, she, along with her roommate, allegedly made pledges’ lives “a living hell,” the tipster said.

Kazantsev told “GMA” that she was asked to leave Alpha Phi in her senior year at Hofstra on New York’s Long Island, but for another reason: a joke in an email to alumni that was taken out of context and forwarded to the sorority’s national office.

An email she sent to Alpha Phi alumni regarding a new-members event joked “that we would make the evening scary for the pledges ... ,” she said. “That event never came to fruition and none of those things that I’ve been accused of ever happened or were ever intended to happen.”

After an investigation, the one-time new-member educator (that’s pledge master, in classic Greek-speak) and another member were asked to leave the sorority in April 2013.

Kazantsev said she was hazed as a freshman, along the lines of standing in a line reciting information, menial tasks and “a few sleepless nights crafting.”

“I was kind of brought up through the organization thinking that’s appropriate behavior when, clearly, I’m two years removed from the organization today and I understand that that’s just not true,” she said.

“Kira has been fully transparent with the Miss America Organization about her termination from the Alpha Phi sorority,” a pageant representative told Jezebel in a statement.

Kazantsev, who was the third consecutive Miss New York to become Miss America, was crowned Sept. 14 in Atlantic City, N.J.

Hofstra’s anti-hazing policy is detailed in a “new member packet” updated in August 2013.

Hofstra’s examples of “subtle hazing” include but aren’t limited to deception, demerits, quizzing on meaningless information, name calling and requiring new members to refer to current members by titles such as Mr. or Miss.

Also, “absolutely no competitive singing.”

Examples of “harassment hazing” include written or verbal abuse, personal servitude, sleep deprivation, required group sleepovers and requiring new members to wear abnormal, unusual or humiliating attire.

“Violent hazing” includes forced or coerced alcohol or drug consumption, branding, abduction or kidnapping, bondage, expecting illegal activity or requiring public nudity or lewd behavior.

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