Author: Hank Nuwer

http://badgerherald.com/oped/2008/10/13/band-aid.php

SHERYL KORNMAN and RYN GARGULINSKI
Tucson Citizen
“He was my child. He was my son,” said a husky-voiced David Stivers, the former band director at Desert View High School.
Stivers, who was Johnny Smith’s teacher for four years, choked back tears as he remembered the 18-year-old, who graduated from the high school in May.
Smith was found dead Sunday morning in his Delta Tau Delta fraternity house at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., apparently after a night of drinking. The cause of death is unknown, according to college officials.
About 150 students, teachers, administrators and Smith’s parents attended an outdoor memorial service for Smith on Tuesday night at Desert View, 4101 E. Valencia Road.
Smith had won a scholarship to the liberal arts men’s college, which has 900 students.
Seven weeks into the school year, he was found facedown in a pool of vomit, his mother, Stacy Smith, said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. She said he wanted to be a nuclear scientist.
Stivers said Smith was a band member at Desert View for four years and a member of the jazz band for two. He also played football and was on the club lacrosse team.
“He was one of the best students we had in the band,” Stivers said. “He knew his music better and before anyone else. That is who he was.”
Again, Stivers expressed his deep feelings for his student: “He was my child,” and he paused to compose himself.
“He had to be the best, better, quicker than anyone else. He was,” Stivers said. “The circumstances around what’s going on are horrible. I don’t know how to tell you how to deal with it. I don’t know how.”
Raul Hodgers, Desert View’s assistant principal for athletics, said he will talk to students about the loss of Smith, who played varsity football, before Friday night’s football game.
Smith’s parents, Stacy and Robert Smith, stood grimly near a floral arrangement in the center of the group that gathered to mourn their son Tuesday night.
Some students held each other and wept.
Investigations by the Crawfordsville Police Department, the Wabash Dean of Students Office, and Delta Tau Delta International are ongoing.
A memorial service is set for Thursday at Wabash College.
“Johnny was a tremendous young man,” said Wabash President Patrick E. White, in a statement posted on the college’s Web site. “He was part of a brotherhood of Wabash men, and we grieve for him, his family, and his brothers at this difficult time. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and his friends.”
Smith’s friends and family said he rarely drank. His close cousin Eddie Brown, 19, said that peer pressure may have contributed to Smith’s death.
Funeral arrangements are pending. Wabash has been providing counseling to members of Smith’s fraternity.

Here is the link

Tulane frat members won’t be charged in hazing incident
by Gwen Filosa, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday October 07, 2008, 11:09 AM

Orleans Parish prosecutors refused to charge five members of a Tulane University fraternity arrested this spring in what police called a hazing that included the pouring of crab-boil and boiling water on two pledges.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled today in the Magistrate section of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. Instead, the district attorney’s office announced it would seek no charges against the five men, all originally booked with aggravated second-degree battery.

Booked were Joseph Lorono, 21, of New York; Randall Graham, 20, of Michigan; Nicholas Maddern, 22, of Massachusetts; Kevin Dunn, 20, of New York; and Jeremy Bendat, 22, of California.

The five were arrested May 6 days after an hours-long hazing either at or near the fraternity house on Broadway, late night April 25 or the pre-dawn hours April 26, sources familiar with the investigation said.

Tulane suspended its chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity after the arrests and promised its own investigation.

At some point, crab-boil and other things were poured on the pledges’ bodies and boiling water poured over that, tearing their skin in places, according to the sources.

The two victims had “second- and third-degree burns” to various parts of the body that included the back, chest, neck and arms,” the sources said.

Indystar article ignores hazing and its traditions at Wabash. It also ignores past deaths and close calls at Wabash. Has good info on alcohol situation at Wabash. Comparisons with Ryder death of Gary Devercelly may be in order. Moderator.
Student death may be 2nd linked to drinking
Some question whether Wabash College needs more alcohol education
By Heather Gillers, Francesca Jarosz and Dan McFeely
Posted: October 7, 2008

The Wabash College student who died over the weekend appears to be the second freshman in a year to die in alcohol-related incidents during his first semester on campus.

Crawfordsville police are investigating whether alcohol was involved in the death of 18-year-old Johnny Smith, who was found dead at his Delta Tau Delta fraternity house Sunday morning.
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Smith’s relatives in Tucson, Ariz., said the aspiring engineer felt pressure from other fraternity members to drink. Relatives said they think he drank too much during homecoming festivities before his fraternity brothers put him to bed.

Smith’s death follows an incident in October 2007 when freshman Patrick Woehnker, 19, died after falling off the roof of a campus building. Montgomery County Coroner Darren Forman said alcohol was a contributing factor.

Now, students and administrators at the all-male college are questioning whether enough is done to teach freshmen about the dangers of alcohol. Unlike the state’s major public universities and some other small private colleges, 900-student Wabash does not dedicate part of its new student orientation to the topic.

Instead, it relies on a code that calls on students to be gentlemen and responsible citizens.

The school administration has been “very intentional about our expectations” with regard to underage drinking, said Mike Raters, the college’s dean of students, but he acknowledged that more could be done.

“Obviously our work needs to continue in our efforts to raise awareness of the gentleman’s rule and responsible citizenry,” he said. Raters questioned whether teaching students about the hazards of alcohol when they are too young to drink legally was the right thing to do.

“We don’t have a specific session in orientation that focuses on alcohol education because the overall premise of the gentleman’s rule and responsible citizenry emphasizes that they have to follow the law,” he said. “To have a special session on alcohol education would be in my mind contradictory to ‘follow the law.’ “

Alcohol education and the signs of alcohol poisoning are discussed during a twice-a-year workshop attended by fraternity leaders. Raters said the subject also sometimes comes up in weekly meetings involving college staff members, fraternity presidents and resident assistants.
Students cite traditions

Some students say Wabash is not immune to the underage drinking that takes place on other campuses. Traditions such as homecoming are an excuse for some students to drink excessively, said Spencer Elliott, a Wabash junior from Fort Wayne.

“Just like any football game — like (Indiana) versus Purdue — people go to the game drunk. Wabash is no different,” Elliott said. “People take these events as an occasion to party and get drunk.”

Wabash College President Patrick White said that in the two years he has been president of the school, he has never heard of a fraternity being disciplined for an alcohol-related incident, but some individuals have been disciplined for underage drinking.

Detectives told Smith’s family that he had been at a homecoming party Saturday night and that four fraternity brothers brought him back to his room very drunk, Smith’s aunt Sherri Taylor said Monday. She said they were told that a member of the fraternity stayed with Smith until about 4 a.m. Crawfordsville police said a 911 call from the frat house came in at 8:52 a.m. Sunday.

Relatives said Smith never drank alcohol growing up and had told his 19-year-old cousin Eddie Brown by phone last weekend that he felt pressure to drink to avoid humiliation in front of his fraternity brothers. “He never was in any kind of trouble,” said Monya Ballah, Smith’s grandmother.
Other schools have acted

Other schools have cracked down on hard-drinking fraternities and implemented curriculums aimed at preventing underage drinking.

Purdue University, for instance, provides a program that addresses alcohol for all students attending its five-day orientation, said Tammy Lowe, who oversees an initiative aimed at reducing high-risk drinking among first-year students.

At DePauw University, an alcohol task force with representatives from various campus departments works to be sure proper attention is focused on alcohol education.

Some students at Wabash say the school’s administration tries to let students regulate their own lives, and alcohol awareness training is no different.

“They leave the responsibility in the hands of each and every student,” said Jake Peacock, a Wabash freshman from Crawfordsville. “It’s up to us to make sure that stuff gets done.”

But advocates such as Ruth Gassman say more aggressive measures are needed. Gassman is executive director of the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at IU in Bloomington, which works to help prevent alcohol and drug problems.

She suggests measures such as requiring programs about drinking alcohol, providing alcohol-free and drug-free venues for students, and reducing advertising and promotion of alcoholic beverages on campus.

Elliott agreed that more should be done. He said that, ideally, the momentum should come from students rather than administrators.

“There are some things that need to be addressed,” Elliott said. “This may be the impetus for some of that to begin.”