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Hazing News

Update: Arrest in LSU suicide and close call. Response by Mrs. Piazza, mother of Tim Piazza

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Evelyn Weinert Piazza
10h ·
Absolutely disgusting! There is so much wrong with this situation! Hazing is always on purpose – it is planned and the intent is to harm, embarrass, or degrade new members – it is an intentional act of cruelty and abuse! This is a felony in the state of Louisiana thanks to the Max Gruver Act. Thankfully the young man on life support lived (after a deadly BAC) but his girlfriend did not – she committed suicide when he was taken to the hospital. There is so much more to this story and there should be a large number of charges assessed to the hazers, especially to the New Member Educator! Parents, if your child is hazed please press charges – it has to stop! All of those 13 pledges (new members) should be pressing charges and filing civil suits! And the fact that there was a death as a consequence of this hazing event is heartbreaking!
*Also should matter that Rae Ann Feldner Gruver, Stephen Gruver and I spoke to LSU students last year and told them in great detail the damaging effects of hazing – so these hazers chose cruel abuse of the new members knowing full well what could happen. And then they didn’t call 911 after putting them in a dangerous state. They chose cruelty over brotherhood – they deserve to face serious consequences, the least of which is expulsion from LSU and a permanent ban on the Phi Psi chapter there.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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