Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

San Luis Obispo, Calif., Police Department officials announced today that they have arrested and charged individuals in connection with the Dec. 2, 2008, death of 18-year-old Carson Starkey (at right) of Austin.
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San Luis Obispo officials are releasing more information at a 3 p.m. (Central Time) press conference, so check back here for details on what officials there are calling a “fraternity hazing death.”

Starkey died of alcohol poisoning during a fraternity initiation in California on Dec. 2. He had pledged to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity during his freshman year at California Polytechnic State University. According to a police report, Carson died as a result of hazing, and autopsy results showed his blood alcohol content was between .39 and .44. The legal limit to drive in Texas is .08.

A graduate of Austin High School, Carson Starkey was a member of the school’s tennis, lacrosse and cross-country running teams. But his father, Scott Starkey, has said that Carson Starkey’s true love was cycling, and he helped his father build mountain bike trails in Texas and Colorado.

After graduating in the top 10 percent of his high school class, Carson Starkey decided to go to Cal Poly because it was one of the top schools for architectural engineering, his mother, Julia Starkey, has said. He started school Sept. 13, bringing his cowboy boots and a Texas flag with him. He told his parents that he wanted to join the fraternity to make more friends.

Julia and Scott Starkey have said they knew little about alcohol poisoning before their son died and now want to educate other people about it. In March, they and about 200 of their friends and relatives walked in the Capitol 10K wearing blue T-shirts with a picture of Carson Starkey and the address of a Web site — www.withcarson.com — with information about life-threatening signs of alcohol abuse.

Since Carson’s death, the Starkeys have also persuaded the Austin school district to add alcohol poisoning and hazing awareness to the secondary health curriculum next school year, said Tracy Lunoff, the district’s health curriculum director. The Starkeys have also established a scholarship fund for a graduating Austin High School senior and a fund to create awareness about alcohol poisoning and hazing.

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The Spartanburg Herald Journal reported today that the hazing allegations involving the Woodruff High School baseball team include spanking on the team bus. No charges have been placed.

Link:http://www.goupstate.com/article/20090514/ARTICLES/905149962/1083/ARTICLES?Title=New-details-released-about-alleged-Woodruff-High-hazing

Moderator: The high number of serious incidents connected to Lambda Phi Epsilon has put this particular group on the radar screen of school administrators and journalists as a potential hazard to prospective members. The serious incidents in the press are mounting with this group. Remember, this is an organization founded only in 1981. Not all Lambda Phi Epsilon chapters are problematic, of course, but way too many chapters have been connected with brutal hazing.

Here is the latest from two Buffalo schools with members charged and pledges hospitalized.

The Buffalo News

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05/12/09 07:08 AM
Six remain free on bail in fraternity hazing

Six local college students who were charged with assault after allegedly taking part in a hazing ritual were allowed to remain free on bail Monday while an investigation continues.

City Judge James A. W. McLeod scheduled further proceedings for Kong M. Siu, 21, of Bayside; Ronald Lin, 21, of Brooklyn; Qiyvan Zhang, 22, of Groton; Brian B. Shim, 22, of Syosett; Andrew Lui, 21, of Brooklyn; and Ho Lee, 22, of Woodbury. All have been charged with felony second-degree assault and misdemeanor hazing.

The six are said to be members of Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity. They are accused of paddling three victims and forcing them to drink alcohol until they lost consciousness April 26 in a Winspear Avenue home.

Edward C. Cosgrove, attorney for all six defendants, confirmed that all six have been suspended from class until the criminal case is resolved. Five of the defendants are from the University at Buffalo. The sixth, Shim, in a junior in D’Youville’s nursing program.

According to court documents, the victims were found unconscious in a locked upstairs bedroom, hospitalized for two days at Erie Medical Center and treated for “dehydration, alcohol poisoning, blood in urine and severe pain, swelling and severe bruising to buttocks.”

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Indian River County schools
Counsel rests case in Sebastian River baseball coach’s appeal

By Laurel Pfahler (Contact) INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Counsel for the Indian River County School Board rested its case Thursday morning in an administrative hearing in which former Sebastian River baseball coach George Young is appealing a three-day unpaid suspension from teaching.

Young lost his coaching job and served the suspension almost a year ago as a result of an alleged hazing incident involving members of the Sharks baseball team while staying in a hotel during a spring break tournament in March of 2008.

The 14-year coach was disciplined after Indian River School District investigators concluded three Sebastian River baseball players held down a teammate and placed a plastic 2-liter bottle at or near a player’s rectum.

Before resting, attorney Wayne Helsby, of Allen, Norton & Blue, P.A., in Winter Park, called four more witnesses to the stand Thursday morning on behalf of the school district, including Sebastian River Principal Peggy Jones, Superintendent Harry La Cava, Assistant Principal Billy Wilson and District Executive Director of Human Resources Kevin Browning.

Jones was the district’s first witness of Day 2 in the hearing and detailed the order of events regarding the school’s investigation. She also provided reason for her decision to remove him from his coaching duties, citing that he waited a week after hearing an incident might have occurred and that after Young heard about the possibility of a bottle being involved, he did not attempt to contact her.

“When he learned of the bottle, he should have come to me,” Jones said.

La Cava said he was not a part of the investigation process but received periodic updates and used the investigation report for the basis of his decision to recommend to the board a suspension of Young.

Wilensky asked if La Cava remembered the information he provided La Cava regarding what the attorney called misquoted information in witness statement reports. He said Young was sourced to a quote that the victim’s mother said in reference to the victim’s parents and Young’s original decision not to discuss the bottle when reporting the incident.

La Cava said he took the information into consideration, though Wilensky pointed out that he still used pieces of that incorrect information in his agenda notes prior to Young’s appeal to the school board.

“There was knowledge of a bottle, and he didn’t say anything,” La Cava said.

Young’s counsel, Mark Wilensky of Dubiner & Wilensky, P.A., in West Palm Beach, called two witnesses out of turn, with the court’s approval, prior to the district’s final witnesses because of concerns the witnesses would be unavailable after Thursday morning.

Parent Thomas Whittington Jr. and his son, Thomas Whittington III, a member of the baseball team, testified that Young called a meeting the morning following the incident to find out what happened, but no players came forward. Thomas Whittington III, a senior this year, also said Young addressed t he team prior to leaving for the tournament and told the players they “need to represent the high school in a good, disciplined manner.”

Following a lunch break, Wilensky called parent Jim Mueller, a parent chaperon on the trip, to the stand, and he corroborated what the Whittington’s both said. He also said he heard of some possible “wrestling” the night of the incident and told Young he would check it out, but everything was quiet.

Wilensky has several more witnesses to call, but both counsel expect the hearing to conclude by noon Friday.