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Williamsville, NY youth dies in West Virginia fraternity incident

Moderator  A chapter already on notice for bad behavior? Alcohol served freely. An impressionable pledge wanting to belong.  All signs point to yet another hazing death in America. This is the second youth historically from the Buffalo, NY area to die under such circumstances. The first was Scott Krueger of MIT who died of an alcohol overdose in an episode called hazing. MIT settled with the Krueger family for $6 million.

 

Excerpt

A West Virginia University freshman has died after what the university called a “catastrophic medical emergency” at a fraternity house.

The university suspended all Greek activities after Nolan Burch, 18, was hospitalized Thursday due toincident at the Kappa Sigma house, said WVU Dean of Students Corey Farris.

The suspension of fraternity and sorority activities could last until the end of the semester, Farris said.

Morgantown Police Department officers found Burch at the fraternity “without any pulse or respiration” when they arrived, according to a police release. Someone was performing CPR on Burch when the police arrived, the release said.

The university and police department have not provided details of whether the incident was related to hazing.

 

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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