Dangers Of Alcohol Seen On Campuses

Dear Ann Landers: I need your help to get this message out about the dangers of fraternity hazing. My first experience with this so-called “fun” activity was on Dec. 10, 1993, when I was awakened at 3 a.m. and told that my son, Chad, was dead.

Only a few hours earlier, Chad had left a phone message saying, “Hi, Mom. I’m dressed like an elf and going to the frat Christmas party. I’ll be home early tomorrow.” At the fraternity’s traditional Christmas party that night, he had to consume a large amount of alcohol, given to him by his “big brother.”

A few hours later, Chad was discovered outside on the lawn, passed out. He was carried to a room and left there. An hour later, he was found turning blue, and he was pronounced dead at 1:20 a.m. He had a blood alcohol content of .353.

No one planned this tragic accident, but actually, it was not an accident. It was a planned, premeditated activity, a tradition that has been going on for years.

Colleges and fraternities label fatalities like my son’s as accidents, but they are related to hazing, which is any activity that endangers the mental health, physical well-being, dignity, safety or rights of any individual. Hazing involves everything from sleep deprivation to kidnapping, degrading pranks, forced drinking, chugging contests and binge drinking.

We parents need to take steps to educate our young people and call a halt to this kind of activity. We also need to question school organizations about what they are doing to stop hazing. Eileen Stevens, founder of the Committee to Halt Useless College Killings (C.H.U.C.K.), said, “Combine peer pressure, secrecy and alcohol, and you’ve got a tragedy waiting to happen.”

Like Eileen Stevens, I, too, have started an organization in the hope of stopping these barbaric hazing practices. Please tell your readers about it. - Rita Saucier, Mobile, Ala.

Dear Rita Saucier: Thank you for the information and for the opportunity to shine a spotlight on this problem.

Eileen Stevens founded C.H.U.C.K. in 1978, after her son died in a fraternity hazing incident involving alcohol. In the past 20 years, at least 75 deaths have occurred due to college hazing. In this school year alone, alcohol has played a direct role in the deaths of at least eight students.

Forty states now have anti-hazing laws on the books. Most colleges have alcohol and hazing policies, but these are rarely enforced. While national fraternities and sororities clearly forbid hazing, it is quite common for local chapters to carry out hazing practices in secret - and almost all of these practices include consuming large amounts of alcohol within a short period of time.

A recent study found that binge drinkers are seven to 10 times more likely to have unprotected sex or unplanned sexual activity, get into trouble with campus police, damage property or suffer some kind of injury. Some 90 percent of all campus rapes and 95 percent of all campus acts of violence were committed when alcohol had been consumed.

For those who want more information, please write to the Committee Against Hazing, P.O. Box 850955, Mobile, Ala. 36685, or C.H.U.C.K. at P.O. Box 188, Sayville, N.Y. 11782.

Gem of the Day (Credit Martin Luther King Jr.): The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort but where he stands at times of challenge and discovery.