A lawsuit against an Indiana college claims that the school shares blame for an 18-year-old freshman's death from alcohol poisoning after a fraternity house party because of its lax attitude toward underaged drinking and hazing.
The parents of Johnny Smith of Tucson, Ariz., filed the wrongful death lawsuit in a Montgomery County court against Wabash College. Smith was found dead at the Delta Tau Delta house in October 2008, and the lawsuit said tests determined he had a blood-alcohol level of nearly 0.40 percent.
The lawsuit claims the fraternity provided beer and alcohol to Smith and other minors during a Saturday night party of homecoming weekend and required Smith to drink shots of hard alcohol with older fraternity members. The members didn't then seek medical care for him after he suffered facial injuries in falling down a stairwell and then had to be carried to an upstairs room to sleep, the lawsuit said.
The all-male liberal arts college shared responsibility, the lawsuit said, because it owns the fraternity house.
Wabash spokesman James Amidon declined Thursday to comment on specifics of the lawsuit.
The school issued a statement saying "we believe in the strength of our Gentlemen's Rule — that a student is expected to conduct himself as a gentleman and a responsible citizen at all times — and we remain steadfast in our believe in personal responsibility."
Stephen Wagner, an attorney for Stacy and Robert Smith, said Wabash had a dangerous culture of underaged drinking and that its "Gentlemen's Rule" was vague and ineffective.
"For 18 year olds away from home for the first time, susceptible not only to peer pressure but also hazing from older fraternity brothers, the Gentlemen's Rule is not safeguard at all," Wagner said.
Smith's death was the second in about a year at the 900-student school in which alcohol might have played a part. A 19-year-old Wabash freshman died in October 2007 when he slipped and fell from a roof at the campus in Crawfordsville, about 40 miles northwest of Indianapolis. Tests showed he had been drinking.
The Smith family's lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from the college and the fraternity.
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A College Or A Babysitter? at AntiTyrannyNews.com
The beef is with the lad himself and the Frat. These are rich kids, go after the kids in the frat, their National Organization, that I can understand, but the school? Time for you to have a reality check. I would think if you are sending your kid off so many miles away you would have prepared him to be responsible without having a mommy looking over his shoulder. If not, he should have stayed home in Texas. Texans should not mess with things they have no clue about.
As random students at all Indiana colleges....I'm almost positive you'd get the same feedback.
The parents are right about one thing in that the university is fully aware of the situations that occur on its campus and do little to nothing other than always throwing around their sacred "Gentleman's Agreement"... that's about as effective as the fraternities themselves saying the values and ritual of the organization will guide all behavior.
And while I agree that individual behavior is the driving force that caused the sitution, the individual is still affected by one's environment.
This situation is dreadful. Mr. Smith drank too much and he died a horrific death. As far as any of us know, he was not physically forced to do so. Other pledges who were there say they did not drink. While we all know now that he should have been taken to the hospital, his Delt brothers did periodically look in on him from time to time. That's more attention than most of us probably received in a similar situation 10,20,50 years ago.
I can't imagine losing a child or other loved one in such a senseless situation. But to blame others for having alcohol nearby is passing the buck. Perhaps the Smith family didn't drink and didn't have any in the house when he grew up. If that is the case, the tragedy is probably even more surprising to them. If it did, however, and the alcohol was unlocked, it would seem that the Delts and the college did nothing worse. Again, I can't even imagine the pain that this family is enduring and I believe them when they say this is a sincere attempt to bring attention to the matter.
There are two overall issues that should be discussed:
1. Does Wabash really drink more than other colleges? (Given that most people rightly see it as a seminary from Sunday through Friday, I can't imagine that it gives much competition to other colleges.)
2. Why do we not recognize that young adults (those old enough to vote and get killed in Iraq) are going to drink at times -- for the same reason as we older adults do? Is it a coincidence that binge drinking increased after all states raised the minimum age to 21? Should there not be an age of 18 so that everyone can be frank about the perils of drinking?
Random thoughts...
If you're familiar with the fraternity environment, pledges do a lot of things they don't want to do. If they don't want to be ridiculed and the butt of more jokes, they suck it up and "Just Do It."
Delta Tau Delta is known on several Indiana campuses as being the worst "party-bunch", idiots and destructive group of men on the entire campus. Maybe it's time for them to revamp their frat.