Hank Nuwer, Author; Hazing Deaths Database

Loss of son leads family to warn of alcohol poisoning at Cap 10K
Austin High graduate died last fall at California university.

By Claire Osborn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, March 28, 2009

When he was 6 years old, Carson Starkey got mowed down by a wave of people in his first race, but got back up and finished second in his age group, his mother said. By age 9, he was loping along in his first Statesman Capitol 10,000 with his parents.

He competed in the race for the next eight years, and ran one year dressed as a 1970s summer camper. Last year he walked the race with a broken back from a tennis injury.

This year his parents, Julia and Scott Starkey of Austin, won’t see their son striding to the finish line.

Carson Starkey, 18, 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.

“His death blind-sided us and left a permanent hole in our family,” said Scott Starkey.

The Starkeys said they knew little about alcohol poisoning before their son died. Now, they say, they want to educate other people about it.

So they and 200 of their friends and relatives will walk in the Capitol 10K Sunday wearing blue T-shirts with a picture of Carson Starkey and the address of a Web site that gives information about life-threatening signs of alcohol abuse, the Starkeys said.

The Web site, www.withcarson.com, got its name because Scott Starkey, who builds mountain bike trails, named a trail he and Carson constructed in Hunt “With Carson” because his son liked to ride it so much.

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

Carson’s older brother Hayden, who is attending the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., talked to 4,500 of his fellow classmates in an assembly before spring break about what happened to Carson, Julia Starkey said.

A graduate of Austin High School, Carson Starkey was a member of the school’s tennis team, lacrosse team and cross-country running team. But his true love was cycling, said Scott Starkey, 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 said.

He started school Sept. 13, bringing his cowboy boots and a Texas flag with him and immediately making friends, Julia Starkey said. He told his parents that he wanted to join the fraternity to make more friends, they said.

The last time they saw him was at the airport after he spent Thanksgiving at home, Scott Starkey said.

They declined to comment about the details of their son’s death, saying it remains under investigation. According to a report from the San Luis Obispo Police Department, 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.

San Luis Obispo investigators are continuing to interview people in the case, and no charges have been filed, said Capt. Dan Blanke of the San Luis Obispo Police Department. Hazing that results in death is either a misdemeanor or a felony in California depending on the circumstances, Blanke said. In Texas, hazing that results in death is a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of $10,000.

The Starkeys said they weren’t exposed to hazing when they were in the Greek system at the University of Texas. Julia Starkey said she warned her son about the dangers of drinking but didn’t know to warn him about alcohol poisoning.

In her son’s memory, Julia Starkey said, she had someone make a quilt out of Carson’s Cap 10K T-shirts.

“We intend to learn from this experience and use our knowledge in a positive way to help others. Our ultimate goal is to never have another family suffer as we have,” the Starkeys said in a statement.

Here is the story link.

UVA Chi Phi members get jail time for fraternity kidnap
Posted by: “Doug Case” doug.case@sdsu.edu   dougcasesdsu
Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:07 am (PDT)
Charlottesville Daily Progress
March 27, 2009
http://www.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/crime/article/4_uva_students_sent_to_jail_after_frat_abduction_tradition/37834/4

UVa students sent to jail after frat abduction ‘tradition’

By Tasha Kates

A group of University of Virginia second-year students will serve jail time
in April for what their attorney said is a fraternity prank gone wrong.

Chase Wagner Whitlow, Gabriel Rust-Tierney, Jordan Vinsant Davis and Joseph
Uzcategui, all members of Chi Phi, pleaded guilty Thursday to disorderly
conduct as part of a plea agreement in Charlottesville General District
Court, according to Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell. The four
men were sentenced to 90 days in jail, 86 of which were suspended.

In September, the then-19-year-old students were charged with abduction in
connection with an incident in April. According to authorities, four men
threw the victim into the back of a car in the university area and left him
in the road near a Crozet restaurant. The victim, who was not seriously
hurt, called police at the restaurant.
Worrell declined to comment on the nature of the offense. However, defense
attorney James E. “Bud” Treakle said Thurs-day that the four men were
taking part in a “fraternity tradition” in which someone kidnaps an older
fraternity brother and drops him off somewhere, leaving him to find his way
home. The older fraternity member in this case didn’t report it as a prank,
the lawyer said.

It was not clear if the four men were Chi Phi members at the time of the
incident, but Treakle confirmed that they are currently brothers in the
fraternity.
Treakle, who was hired by all four students, said the plea agreement was
“damage control” in hopes of avoiding a felony trial. The attorney said he
thought the sentence was severe based on the facts of the case, which he
said police spent a substantial amount of time investigating.

Treakle said his clients spoke to police before going home for the summer
and were charged in September. The men spent the night in jail after their
arrest, and by their lawyer’s calculations, have only one day left to serve.
Worrell said the students are expected to report to jail April 17. The
prosecutor did not confirm Treakle’s calculations.

©2009 Media General Communications Holdings.

From the Anderson Independent Mail:

ANDERSON — Three or four McCants Middle School students may or may not be in school Monday, following an investigation by Anderson School District 5 into an alleged hazing incident.

Officials with the Anderson-based district would not comment about the incident other than to release a statement Friday.

In the statement, the district said it is investigating the incident that happened during a recent 8th grade trip to New York City.

“The administration at McCants Middle School was made aware of an incident that allegedly occurred on an out-of-state 8th grade field trip,” district officials said in the statement. “The administration immediately began investigating the allegations. Although the district cannot discuss confidential student matters, we can state emphatically that this incident will be fully investigated and any students who are determined to have engaged in misconduct will be punished in accord with established district policy.”

The family of the reported victim declined to comment.

According to parents of McCants students who did not wish to be identified, the students went to Washington, D.C., New York City and Hershey, Penn., and visited such sites as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Statue of Liberty and saw a Broadway show. Parents pay nearly $1,000 per child for the trip. This is the 10th year students have taken the trip. McCants students in 7th grade take a trip to Jekyll Island, Ga., they said.

Details of the incident being investigated could not be confirmed.

Randall Williams, spokesman for the City of Anderson Police Department, said no reports had been filed at the police department regarding such an incident. Even if a complaint were filed, the police department would not be able to investigate it, he said.

“If it happened in New York City, it would have to be investigated there,” he said.
E.W. Scripps Co.
© 2006 The Anderson Independent Mail

Link to the Daily Texas:

Except follows: boldface by moderator

Hazing code changes would repeal automatic immunity

Mohini Madgavkar

Daily Texan Staff
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Published: Friday, March 27, 2009

Updated: Friday, March 27, 2009

Ryan Weinheimer’s pledgeship to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in the fall of 2005 was cut short when one of his pledge brothers alerted representatives from the Interfraternity Council to the fraternity’s use of hazing.

“I think we had Vaseline in our hair,” said Weinheimer, a philosophy senior. “We hadn’t slept for probably 24 to 35 hours, and so when they walked in, obviously the fraternity sent us all home to wait and see what IFC was going to do.”

Weinheimer said that typically, hazing was more mental than physical.

“It’s more of a mind-fuck thing,” he said. “It was like staying up at the house for really long periods of time building. People of course are, like, yelling at you, making you do random shit for them.”

But Weinheimer admitted that pledges were pushed to do calisthenics and prevented from bathing.

In an effort to deter student organizations from hazing, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, proposed changes to the hazing code that would clarify criteria for hazing and eliminate automatic legal immunity for students who report hazing in which they have participated.

“Under the current law, there are provisions that anyone who comes and reports to the dean of students, they get automatic immunity from all civil and criminal prosecutions,” said Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, who testified in favor of the bill at the committee hearing. “And that has raised questions about someone who might have been the bad actor who raced over to the dean of students’ office before law enforcement
arrived.”

Weinheimer said he was skeptical of the bill’s effects.

“If it’ll have any effect, it’ll make sure that people don’t come and tell the IFC or the University what’s going on,” Weinheimer said.

Dean of Students Soncia Regins-Lilly said she has noticed an increase in hazing reports since she began working at UT three years ago.

“During the fall semester, we may have received more than six or so complaints filed,” Lilly said. “In previous years, we could go a semester with zero to one.”

But the increase in reports has not deterred the practice.

In 2007, 10 organizations were cited for hazing, and 2009’s hazing memorandum cited an additional 12 organizations for violating increasingly stringent policies.

Since 2005, two UT students have died after binge drinking during pledging activities.

Lilly said traditional Greek organizations no longer hold a monopoly on hazing.

“One of the myths of hazing is that it is a practice or a social phenomenon only for Greek organizations, and it’s not the case,” Lilly said. “There are non-Greek organizations that also participate.”

Of the new organizations cited in 2009’s hazing memorandum, five are spirit organizations, two are multicultural Greek organizations and one, Phi Delta Chi, is a professional fraternity for aspiring pharmacists.

Lilly said that in general, hazing continues to restrict itself to traditional techniques, including humiliation, calisthenics and forced drinking, but that organizations have developed new techniques, including forced drinking of large amounts of water and cattle prodding.

Leo Barnes, UT’s vice president for legal affairs, said preventing students from getting away with hazing is an important step toward deterring the practice.

Weinheimer said he didn’t think the bill’s prescriptions would help curb the practice.

“The only loophole that would be closing would be the one that makes it possible to tell [the dean of students or the IFC] about hazing,” Weinheimer said. “I don’t think it’s a loophole they want to close if they want to reduce hazing.”

Excerpt:

UTSA boots Phi Gamma Delta fraternity for hazing
The Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — A fraternity that hazed pledges with flaming toilet paper and sand-covered hot dogs has been suspended from the University of Texas at San Antonio campus.

Administrators booted the Phi Gamma Delta chapter off campus this month until 2013 after learning of the alcohol-fueled hazings by the Fijis.