So sad. Please talk to your kids about the risks if you haven’t already.
This is incredibly sad. I think about the parent’s devastation and I can’t wrap my head around it.
Tragic. And he’d had a younger brother who died in a freak accident years ago. His poor parents.
It was another FRAT PARTY.
Greek life seems to be responsible for a lot of these tragic deaths and yet even on this forum parents are all like: Oh hey my kid wants to pledge! How do we support this?
Would they want the child to ride in cars without seatbelts on? Text while driving???
For the life of me I cannot understand why parents can be outraged by some things but not Greek life at colleges.
Was it? The latest I heard was that the student “may have been trying to pledge a fraternity”. It’s frightening how a lot of these deaths do seem to occur in the context of fraternities. I really wonder how many of these kids don’t realize that drinking too much can actually kill you. Heck, I’ve talked about this stuff with my kid and she doesn’t even drink. So dreadful that this family lost the boy’s twin brother years ago in a freak accident. Those poor parents. 
This is key - it was a non-sanctioned fraternity! Avoid any non-school sanctioned fraternity or sorority as they have no oversight from the college and may not even have a national parent organization. I’m sad to see that fraternities are devolving like this because it was not my husband or father’s experience. In fact, my dad was and is a tea-totaler. I would not recommend my son join a fraternity in this current climate. I think sanctioned sororities are different but need to be evaluated on a case by case basis.
While this happened at a [unsanctioned] frat party, I don’t get the impression that the culture of Greek Life led to this young man’s death.
“A coroner said preliminary toxicology report indicates that Michaels, who was studying business and economics, had a mix of amphetamines, benzodiazepines and alcohol in his system.”
While alcohol is definitely a large part of Greek parties, the fact that he also had amphetamines and other drugs (benzodiazepines include such drugs as Xanax and Valium) leads me to believe that this young man had some serious problems that most likely started before he ever set food on the college campus, much less the fraternity.
Note that amphetamines could include prescription ADHD drugs as well as street drugs.
There have been several fraternity deaths this school year and AFAIK, all were pledging sanctioned fraternities.
It’s well known that alcohol is not the only drug at parties. It’s entirely possible that the student got the other substances at the party. Many kids are pumped up before joining the party with amphetamines as part of the ADHD meds, either that or the calming drugs to keep away their anxiety, which also seems rampant in college kids of late.
Here’s an article in the Atlantic that discusses other injuries that are rampant at Greek parties – we just don’t hear about them as often as we do the deaths.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/
These falls, which the article says are far more frequent in Greek houses than other places, result often in permanent injury.
And the lawyers show up to collect millions of dollars (in total) from the parents for the lasting injuries . . . ;.
It’s an interesting article.
@OHMomof2 - I clearly said that I would not recommend joining any fraternity to my own son - sanctioned or not. While these tragedies do happen at sanctioned fraternities and at regular non-greek parties, joining a non-sanctioned fraternity that has zero oversight increases these risks. My point was that if you are still considering Greek life it is key not to join a non-sanctioned fraternity. I would carefully consider the reputation of each individual chapter if you or your DS/DD are thinking about joining any greek organization.
The highest volume of the worst kinds of college incidents (related to frats or not) occur during the so-called red zone. Which is the first semester of college, and especially the stretch from the semester start through Thanksgiving break.
If your freshman made through last weekend unharmed and is now hunkering down for finals and term papers, consider yourself lucky. I know I do.