What are your children doing while away at college?
Each year thousands of parents see their kids off to college with everything they need, books, laptops, and coffee pots. What they really need is a safe environment in which to learn. You provided this for them growing up, why stop now. Each year students die or are seriously injured at universities all across the country, victims of hazing from drunken peers. Parents should not let their children join a fraternity or sorority until they know the history of the organization and the school’s track record for dealing with hazing issues.
National fraternal organizations all condemn hazing, have rules against it and are quick to denounce it after every major incident. Yet it continues on every campus. Universities have strict anti-hazing policies but are often slow to respond to complaints or conduct investigations. Like campus crime, it is not something universities want publicized.
In November 2011 police at Longwood University in Virginia charged 16 students with hazing related crimes. At Radford University six of the seven Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity members charged in the 2010 hazing death of a student avoided jail time in a plea deal. A Circuit Court judge found them guilty of misdemeanor charges of purchasing alcohol for a minor and of hazing. An autopsy report said the student's blood-alcohol content at the time of his death was .48, six times the legal limit for driving.
In September of 2010, Virginia Tech sophmore David Gale fell from a third-floor balcony while attending an off campus party in. He was later pronounced dead at the Montgomery Regional Hospital. An offical autopsy report confirmed Mr. Gayle's death was due in part to acute alcohol poisoning.
A popular Drum Major at Florida A & M University died as a result of hazing related injuries in 2011. Authorities said the student died from shock caused by severe bleeding after a hazing ritual on a bus outside an Orlando hotel where the band was staying. In 2008 San Diego State University suspended six fraternities after a sweeping drug investigation that landed members of three fraternities in jail. Federal agents arrested 75 San Diego State students in all and raided the Theta Chi fraternity where agents found cocaine, Ecstasy, and three guns.
Our investigators are experts at campus investigations. We have experience uncovering unreported incidents of underage drinking, vandalism and hazing, on or off campus. We can research lawsuits and cases universities have handled quietly. Even if your child is not a pledge they may know one and end up spending a significant amount of time at a fraternity or sorority. We can also help in cases of cyberbullying and on campus stalking.
Please call us for a free consultation.
Bulldog Investigations
(540)922-3896
