One of the UTC fraternity pledges involved in a self-immolation incident said it was not hazing, even though a campus police investigation said hazing at the fraternity goes back at least three years.

A September 2024 burn incident at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga launched a campus police investigation into hazing on campus. After District Attorney Coty Wamp recused herself, an outside prosecutor decided not to pursue charges, finding that the pledges had planned the act that caused the burns and had participated voluntarily.

Former Kappa Sigma pledge Kaiden Bates told the Chattanooga Times Free Press the blaze was a stunt gone wrong. He said the pledges — not the fraternity — came up with the ideas within the videos released by the university as part of an investigation, no

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