College Investigating Sorority Sisters Who "Bullied" Miss Montana
Minnesota State University Moorhead administrators are investigating a pageant queen's claims that her sorority sisters "bullied" her out of her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta. Miss Montana 2013 Sheridan Tihista says the harassment came "out of the blue." Her sisters say she called them "dishwashers."
Tihista, who's returning MSUM this fall to complete her senior year after taking time off to do the Miss America pageant, says she is no longer welcome at her sorority. She told WDAY-6, "Out of the blue was told that I was probably the most hated woman to go through Gamma Phi and that my membership would have to be voted on." What's more, Tihista alleges that Gamma Phi hazed and harassed other younger members of the sorority, especially her "little." She told The Forum of Fargo Moorhead this weekend, "Those girls would slam doors in her face or stop talking whenever she entered the room. They made her feel unwelcome in her own house."
It's not clear exactly why the alleged harassment started, but Tihista is adamant that the "rumor" she called her sisters "dishwashers" is totally not true. Per The Forum:
[Tihista] said some of the members also started false rumors about her. ... One of the rumors was that Tihista said: "I had more experience in my pinky finger than all of them combined, but the world needed dishwashers, too."
Tihista denied this rumor and said it was completely false and made up to convince other girls to vote her out of the sorority.
Case closed. Tihista says the "chapter needs to be shut down."
MSUM spokesman David Wahlberg told The Forum that the harassment investigation will conclude in the next couple weeks. He told WDAY-6, "We take complaints like this very, very seriously and we have processes lined out in our policy that say how we will go about the investigation."
Tihista, for her part, remains positive:
Maybe I will go home and wear my crown while I eat an entire cheesecake. I think that's against some kind of rule but, whatever......
— Sheridan Tihista (@2013MissMT) September 7, 2014
[Photo via Instagram]