BELLEFONTE, Pa. — The first of more than 20 defendants charged in connection with the hazing death of Timothy Piazza will not be spending time in jail.
Ryan Burke, 21, of Scranton, was sentenced to three months house arrest in Lackawanna County, 27 months of probation, 100 hours of community service and fined $1,000, according to the Centre Daily Times.
What these young men did is reprehensible. They knew something was terribly wrong and they CHOSE to do nothing to save their own a**es. Sad that they are now being told they made the right decision.
From the linked article:
Looks like this defendant was only convicted of lesser charges, not the bigger ones.
A bunch of frat bros and a dead kid. Everyone involved with this should do real time in state prison, PERIOD!!!
And a nice little n=1 anecdote that people around here don’t seem to like:
My son went to a frat party and probably saved two drunk girls from being sexually assaulted or raped. He made sure no one took them to a bedroom and brought them back to their dorm on a bus, even though he had a ride. So proud of him! Guess those elite admission officers missed his “character” checkbox for this guy:
All these male tribal organizations (frats, police, military) just encourage, or at least tolerate this type of behaviour.
Yup and you have a bunch of twenty year olds giving alcohol to an eighteen year olds. What do you do about that? The courts have done the right thing over and over and over in these 20 or so cases. Glad it is finally wrapping up. Hopefully now the emphasis will be on the thousands of PA college students who both provide and consume alcohol underage and not one kid who drank too much and the kids that provided the alcohol. Heck they couldn’t even come up with a law to charge the adult headmaster or whatever he was. Tightening up hazing laws will not necessary prevent a death of an underage drinker but hopefully will curtail the parties and providers and put the teeth in adults in positions of responsibility.
@NoKillli - you raised a great young man. Thank you!
He can only be sentenced to that which he plead guilty. As there where many involved, prosecutors will likely move up the line to get those more involved harsher consequences. My guess is this kid will testify which will make prosecution easier. Trial in Feb. See if anyone else pleads out.
This is a real tragedy.
And many young people make poor choices. Usually the consequences are not so stark and life altering.
I think they will all pay severe consequences.
And the young man who passed a way is such a waste. He had a very bright future. And a penalty must be paid.
I know the family of one of the younger boys. Not only are they terrific people but by all accounts their son is a nice and respectful kid. Not wealthy or entitled by any means. Think caddy vs country club. I don’t think the commentary as though these kids are part of the Charlie Manson family is not helpful.
I believe there were a couple of more mature leaders in the group that called the shots. and unfortunately either booze and/or terrible judgement will follow all these students for many years.
And the parents of the lost child have the heaviest burden.
I was in a frat years ago and it doesn’t sound like much has changed. Perhaps it’s time for them to go by the way of the dinosaur. Too much booze and not enough maturity. Bad combo.
How is this kind of stereotyping any more rational than racial or religious stereotyping?
There’s something I learned way back in a journalism class called “The Exception Principle.” The media only report on the exceptions to the norm, and people then start to believe the exceptions ARE the norm. That’s what’s going on here.
I was in a frat for a year before I transferred to a new school. We did plenty of drinking and partying in the frat, but no more than occurred in the dorms of the college I transferred to. I was unaware of any sexual assaults in my fraternity or the surrounding fraternities. Our pledging rituals, i.e., hazing, involved doing dumb stuff like mooning people in restaurants and staying awake for 24 hours. Alcohol wasn’t part of the hazing. Fraternities and sororities are in a lot of ways like collective support groups. Many raise lots of money for charities, work with youth groups, and take part in things like neighborhood and campus clean-ups. I also remember statistics showing the grades of those belonging to fraternities and sororities were higher than the general campus population.
I was in the military, too. There was plenty of drinking going on there, but none of us went out on drunken rampages and sexually assaulted anyone.
Whenever you get a bunch of kids in their late teens and early twenties together with newfound freedom from mommy and daddy, a lot of them are going to drink and do stupid things, whether they’re part of an organization or not. Occasionally, those stupid things become tragic.
^^^another frat boy defending the club, shocking!
“Alcohol wasn’t part of the hazing.” … Yea sure.
“I also remember statistics showing the grades of those belonging to fraternities and sororities were higher than the general campus population.”
Remember in the old days when the frats had a file cabinet of old tests that the non-greeks did not. (I had lots of greek friends that told stories) This still happens and has a major impact on grades. On reddit, I was just reading about this exact situation at the school that my younger son will attend. I also wonder if schools with a major frat presence have a negative GPA impact on non-greeks because of the exclusion into the party scene. That would be a good research project for you social science majors out there. I give you there is implicit pressure within frats to keep up grades, which is good for everybody.
The school that my younger son is attending have the frats on “double secret probation” so hopefully if he gets involved, they will be on their best behavior for the next few years. He is not a follower, is quick ,very sharp, and real nasty when he is pissed, so I’m not too worried. If anyone tried to force him to do anything stupid, it might not go well for them. He is about 6’3 and 205 lbs so no one messes with him physically.
I’m willing to cut the military a break about sexual assault since I generally don’t read too much about the military, but no way do frats get a pass in my opinion. I’ve seen it with my own eyes and my alma mater did not have a greek presence so it’s not like I was rejected or anything like that. It was on road trips to northeast colleges that I saw this stuff at parties. The drinking age was 18 and there were always drunk girls everywhere. Unfortunately, I did not have the guts to say anything in my youth.
I figured it would be good to get the perspective of someone who’s actually been a part of a fraternity, rather than someone from the outside who thinks she knows what’s going on.
Also, I left the frat after a year, so it’s not like I was particularly attached to it.
Exactly. Don’t like the punishment? Blame the DA for accepting the guilty plea and dropping the other charges. (Of course, maybe those charges were teh only ones that the DA was confident on obtaining a conviction on.)
Of course, if the instructors made old exams readily accessible to all, that would neutralize this effect.
In terms of fraternity/sorority members’ GPAs being higher, there may also be a selection effect, in that the fraternities/sororities may refuse to allow low GPA students to pledge. For example, these schools exclude the lowest GPA students by requiring a minimum of 2.5 GPA to pledge:
https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/involvement-student-life/fraternity-sorority-life/how-join
https://students.dartmouth.edu/greek-life/recruitment/joining-greek-organization/membership-requirements
https://www.wlu.edu/student-life/student-activities/greek-life/recruitment
Could you explain what “double secret probation” of the frats at RPI means?
Greek life at RPI is very different than the average perception, provided you avoid the football or lacrosse fraternities. Hell Week involves no alcohol and zero hazing, same as when I pledged in the early 1980s.
I agree with others. If the design of the event was for pledges to drink large quantities of alcohol, then those in positions of power in the fraternity should all go to jail.
This was a horrible tragedy, but if I’m not mistaken the kid sentenced was the only person who has pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for anything. Of course he should get a comparatively light sentence! The point is to drive home to the others that are risking a lot by fighting the charges, as most of them are.
It is also highly relevant that all of the most serious charges have been thrown out by higher-level courts. I don’t think anyone is being charged with homicide or assault anymore. They are being charged with hazing, or giving alcohol to a minor, or tampering with evidence. Those are not the sort of crimes that typically draw long prison sentences for first offenders. If you are going to give the accused an incentive to plead guilty, accept responsibility, and testify honestly, you can’t be giving the people who do that the same sentences people get if they go to trial and are convicted.
I don’t remember any academic standards for getting into my fraternity, but that was a long time ago. We supposedly had a bunch of old exams laying around somewhere. I never saw them, used them, and never knew of anyone else who used them.
Since I went to Ohio State my freshman year and that’s where I was in a frat, I took a look at some current, general info about joining a fraternity or sorority at OSU.
https://ohiounion.osu.edu/get_involved/sorority_fraternity/join
Nail them.
It’s true that not all fraternities experience incidents like this, but these stories always seem to emanate from some fraternity somewhere. We never hear about the chess club encouraging new members to drink themselves to death.
^^^That kind of logic reminds me of, “Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim.” Do you think that’s a fair and useful statement in regards to Muslims?
@simba9: I think the more extreme elements of any group should be scrutinized.