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A college student in Michigan with a severe allergy had a bad reaction when peanut butter was rubbed on his face during a hazing incident, The New York Times reported.
The hazing act, which caused the student's eyes, nose and lips to swell, occurred in October at Central Michigan University. The perpetrators claimed they were members of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, according to the Times.
This week, 19-year-old Andrew Seely told his parents what happened to him last fall, and his mother contacted the police and university officials. She also posted a photo of his inflamed face to Facebook and explained what happened to him.
“He could have been killed,” she wrote in the post, adding that Seely's peanut allergy is “deadly.”
Seely had medicine on him to counteract the reaction, but he also went to a campus clinic for treatment.
The local police in Mount Pleasant, Mich., are now investigating the hazing. The fraternity, Alpha Chi Rho, has not been recognized on Central Michigan’s campus since 2011, when it banned for hazing its members.
Someone who claimed to be a member of the fraternity told a Detroit-based news outlet about his perspective on the incident involving Seely.
“We were just trying to be funny, just guys hanging out, and we used peanut butter and put some on his face,” the unidentified student said. “We didn’t know he was allergic. We were not trying to harm him in any sense.”
A spokesperson for the university said officials did not learn of the hazing incident until Seely’s mother posted about it on Facebook.
“It is a potential criminal matter,” she said. “It is obviously a very concerning situation.”
