<p>SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. Four California college students face charges stemming from a fraternity hazing that caused the alcohol-induced death of a university freshman, authorities said Thursday. Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin, Texas, was found dead in December with a blood-alcohol level between 0.39 percent and 0.44 percent.
He had to drink a bag full of alcoholic drinks as part of the fraternity pledging process at the California Polytechnic State University, police said. "Carson's death was the result of a crime and it was entirely preventable," police Chief Deborah Linden said.</p>
<p>A frightening situation we need to talk about with our kids entering college, as well as the ones that are already there.</p>
<p>WILMINGTON – The family of a University of Delaware freshman who died after an off-campus party in November filed a wrongful death suit that claims fraternity members let him languish after forcing him to drink a large amount of alcohol.</p>
<p>The suit names the national fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu, its local chapter and five students, including fraternity officers, the “pledge master” and the student who was assigned as Brett Griffin’s “big brother” that night.</p>
<p>It alleges that late on Nov. 7, 2008, and into the next day, the 18-year-old Griffin was taking part in a “mandatory” fraternity function as a pledge, and was pressured into consuming an excessive amount of Southern Comfort. As a result of the hazing, a number of pledges passed out while fraternity brothers watched over an incapacitated Griffin, but did not call for medical assistance for hours, the suit says.</p>
<p>Saw the news of the arrests on TV last night. Unfortunately they mention that ater Carson passed out they started to take him to the hospital. He began vomiting and they turned around, taking him back to the frat house where he died. At that point where he was vomiting he could likely have been saved. Heartbreaking for his family but I was also sad (flame cape put on now) for the four boys who were arrested. Their lives stopped being the same the moment Carson died.</p>
<p>my s will be in a frat as a sophomore next year. he chose his frat bc it did not require any pledging at all. (therefore absolutely no hazing) this is a real issue on campuses and we really do need to talk about it openly with our kids…they need to know how to avoid situations like this to protect themselves, as well as how to respond if a student passes out from alcohol poisoning. (of course this applies to non hazing situations as well, like plain old weekend parties) </p>
<p>I have an old friend whose son had been drinking on top of pain medication, the young man’s friends put him to bed when he passed out and left him alone. he vomited in his sleep, aspirated and had a stroke, leaving him brain injured. the friends did visit at the hospital while this young man was in a coma, but all denied what was plainly apparent, they did not seek help before the damage was done. thankfully he did come out of the coma, but his life is severely limited…</p>
<p>Shows how naive I am. I thought those days were over. Back in the 80’s, when I was in a sorority, we were lectured constantly by the administration and national about hazing and the consequences that would befall us if we were caught hazing. I was kind of hoping these kinds of things didn’t really happen any more. How tragic.</p>
<p>It is not confined to frats and I in no way mean to target them with my comments above…I know a student who was planning to try out for a sport as a freshman. The first practice, after practice the team took the freshman somewhere with the sole purpose of getting them very drunk. The student decided the next day that he wasn’t up for it.</p>
<p>I think one of the saddest things about cases like these is that often there are people watching over incapacitated students, but they won’t call for help. This has to be the worst kind of death a family can be informed of…it could have been so easily prevented. I can’t even imagine trying to deal with all the anger and heartbreak I would be feeling if it were one of my friends or family members.</p>
<p>Kudos for him!! The best way for pledges to avoid drunken hazing deaths is to not get involved in drunken hazing. No one cares more about you than you. The members of the fraternity don’t care about you–they put your life in danger with stupid drinking hazing rituals and then leave you to die because they panic or are worried about getting into trouble.</p>
<p>And I think the drinking ritual for the sports team needs to be reported to the coach and athletic director. Alcohol hazing has no part in college sports. A coach could lose his job if there was a death due to such hazing. He or she deserves a chance to keep his or her job safe by nipping this practice in the bud.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that is far from being sufficient.This problem shows its ugly head on a regular basis. Because of the great number of colleges, the outrage tends to remain local. Fraternities promise to behave only to repeat their egraegious behavior as soon as the scrutiny vanishes. Most of the fraternities are really led by people who are barely older than their new recruits and show little understanding of responsibilities. </p>
<p>The fingerpointing by frat supporters toward other organizations such as athletic teams is not relevant … fraternities ARE a common source of hazing and what should be considered criminal activities.</p>
<p>Time has come for colleges to take drastic actions against the activities of fraternities and impose zero tolerance policies. A good start would be to warn ALL fraternities that any report of hazing will result in the automatic suspension of the local fraternity. Any incident that result in bodily harm to a pledge or current member should come with the immediate EXPULSION of ALL fraternity members … ALL of them without exception. An incident that results in a death should come with the immediate ban of the national chapter and the immediate expulsion of all members who attempt to take the fraternity underground. </p>
<p>I admit being quite biased about the students DYING because of the criminal actions of lunatics who pretend to be someone’s brother. This happens when your best friend is killed by frat members in a series of stupid actions and inactions. </p>
<p>Take a look at [The</a> Gordie Foundation - Home](<a href=“http://www.gordie.org/home.aspx]The”>http://www.gordie.org/home.aspx) and ask yourself why the same behavior is still allowed in 2009 after years of similar incidents. The lack of actions by authorities and most importantly by the colleges themselves is simply stomach-churning. Eradicating the fraternity cancer from all our universities should be the number one priority of colleges, especially if they pretend to be able to keep YOUR children safe.</p>
<p>One would think that such deaths would not happen anymore, what with education and publicity. The fact that they still occur means that drinking hazing rituals are entrenched in the make up of fraternities. </p>
<p>Is it past time to ban these social fraternities on college campuses altogether? I know that not all alcohol related deaths are due to frat hazing, so maybe my response is over the top. I never went to a college with frats, so I am unclear on the purpose they serve.</p>
<p>I would say that such a measure would be an extreme overreaction. Students who are in fraternities and sororities are typically the leaders of the campus community-they are involved in everything from student organizations to intramural sports to student government. At my school (UNC), pretty much every single philanthropic or charity event is organized by a fraternity or sorority, and they raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a variety of causes each year. Greek organizations also contribute greatly to a college’s overall atmosphere. If they were somehow outlawed, the university community as a whole would lose out.</p>
<p>I think the positive aspects of fraternities and sorrorities on large campuses is that they help to create a smaller environment for the students, where they can find a group and friendships more easily, which serves a good purpose, particularly on large campuses, where kids can really struggle to fit in, and where not fiitting in and being away from home can lead to isolation, depression and failure. They also support service work and the better ones support academics…The negatives are obvious and will easily be pointed out by others.</p>
<p>I too agree that Universities have to take swift and severe action toward any group where hazing activities are discovered, including greek organizations and even university band groups or any other student organizations. I do believe that there is less incidence of hazing than there was in the late 70’s, at least that is what I see at our local flagship university. The way hazing is defined at this university is anything that would single out a group within the group is considered hazing and not tolerated, even if it’s something that is not dangerous or involving alcohol like a group that might want to surprise all freshman members by picking them up at their dorms and bringing them to breakfast. Not allowed any more and considered hazing.</p>
<p>I do think putting all the emphasis on fraternity hazing is only addressing part of the problem. We’ve had local news reports and arrests recently involving band members at another local university who haze incoming band members, accused of such things as beating a boy to the point where he had internal organ damage and alcohol also allegedly played a part. To get an idea of the scope of the problem, try watching a show on MTV called “College Life” where students at a university are given cameras to voluntarily record their lives; you will see binge drinking at dangerous levels in a dormitory environment. Very scary and much more rampant than what I remember from back in the day.</p>
<p>I don’t know when “back in the day” was for you…But, I wonder what the drinking age was. I really, even though I worked for years in the alcoholism and addictions field, believe that changing the drinking age for beer and wine back to 18 would be a good way to go. A lot of these overdoses are occuring with the use of hard liquor, and I think a more moderate approach to learning to drink would take place with a smaller dosage. It is difficult to drink enough beer to overdose without getting sick from the pure volume. It is probably a controversial stance, but if the question is about alcohol overdose, I think this would help to tone it down a bit. Obviously, I could be wrong.</p>
<p>Yep, the drinking age back in our day was 18. What I don’t get since the drinking age is 21 are the bars that let 18 year olds into the bar and then have to walk around taking drinks away from the 18 year olds who have 21 year olds buying them drinks. Common occurrence from what I hear, probably only because the bars have periodically been raided to enforce the drinking age.</p>
<p>Then have the fraternities act like … leaders worth following. Nobody is advocating for imposing a ban on fraternities that are NOT engaged in egregious behavior. The issue is not even on voluntary drinking, but is anchored by the dangers of HAZING. </p>
<p>No matter how we slice, the deaths caused by the poor decisions of fraternity leaders and members still occur. They will NOT diminish unless extreme measures are imposed. If the frats deny conducting “ceremonies” that turn into hazing, why would they worry about a possible expulsion from school? </p>
<p>The proposal is pretty simple. Do not do what you deny even exists! If caught lying, the penalty is that you’d have to look for another school. School impose drastic measures on dishonest behavior. Plagiarize a paper or steal food from the cafetaria, and you face expulsion. Kill another student under the cloudy veil and protection of a fraternity, and the school PREFERS to look the other way. </p>
<p>Good fraternities should be the first in line to demand swift and drastic measures against bad fraternities. No matter how we look at it, there should NOT be a single case of hazing in our country and no student should pay for the utter stupidity of fraternity members, their leaders, and their blind parents with his of her LIFE!</p>
<p>“Then have the fraternities act like … leaders worth following. Nobody is advocating for imposing a ban on fraternities that are NOT engaged in egregious behavior. The issue is not even on voluntary drinking, but is anchored by the dangers of HAZING”</p>