America has a long, dark history of college abuse that saw nearly 500 young students die in accidents while being introduced to Greek life.
The latest incident to shock the country was the October 2021 harassment of Danny Santulli, a 19-year-old who survived severe alcohol poisoning but is now blind and in a wheelchair.
Danny’s family attorney, David Bianchi, described it as the worst case of harassment injury the country has ever seen.
“You can’t be more injured and still alive,” he told this week after filing a lawsuit against two of the fraternity boys involved. While Danny survived, more than 400 other children did not.
There is no official database of victimized deaths or injuries, thanks largely to the secrecy immediately laid over incidents by universities, fraternities and sororities.
Danny Santulli, left, before suffering brain damage after a night of forced drinking at the University of Missouri, and right, recently. He is blind and can no longer walk or speak
The census closest to an official tally is that of Hank Nuwer, a journalist who reports on bullying and has written several books on the subject.
By his census, there were 179 deaths from American college harassment between 1838 and 1999, and another 281 between 2000 and 2022.
Three boys died in 2021 after schools reopened after a year-long closure thanks to COVID. There have been no vexatious deaths in 2020 and so far there have been none in 2022 either.
Deaths from alcohol poisoning have increased in recent years. In all three alleged hazing deaths in 2021, the victim died as a result of acute alcohol poisoning.
There was a brief gap in victimization deaths in 2020 when college campuses closed due to COVID-19.
Now, with more children rushing back to school, there are fears of an upward trend – but experts say bulling will be harder to monitor as more children take the rituals off-campus, from the perspective of schools monitoring them .
Pledges are loaded into the back of a U-Haul van for transport to a hazing event at Northwestern University
“It’s all going underground,” Newar told . He said the upward trend began in 1995, when the tradition of “bottle passing” began.
It includes a promise to drink an entire bottle of alcohol – usually cheaper vodka – in one evening.
Newar’s research – which includes interviews with fraternity brothers and psychologists – shows that camaraderie underpins the entire storyline.
“After the incident, there is denial, a blindness among the fraternity members, just like the Bay of Pigs government.
“If you do something risky long enough, something bad will happen, but you don’t see it coming. Interview after interview I find her surprised and I don’t think it’s a fake surprise.
He said the only way to stop bullying is to end the pledge tradition — but colleges and fraternities are reluctant.
A 1905 article from The Albuquerque Evening Citizen describes how student Stuart L. Pierson was tied to railroad tracks and struck by a locomotive in a bullying ritual at Kenyon College
“These slaps on the wrists don’t help anyone. I think it makes fraternity members arrogant and thoughtful. Everyone should have a good time, but no one should die for a good time.
“By doing research and talking to people, [it seems] it’s a form of cheap entertainment – it’s a form of domestic violence. They call themselves Brothers Sons Dads, it’s in a house.
“We have to end the promise – end this power dynamic,” Nuwer added.
Adam Oakes (left) died of complications from alcohol poisoning at Virginia Commonwealth University last February. Phat Nguyen (right) died at Michigan State University in November
In another 2019 incident, Western Michigan University student Bailey Broderick was killed when she was struck by a van being driven by a drunk Promise who was performing one of his duties – ferrying his fraternity brothers around campus. Hunter Hudgins was charged in her death =
Stone Foltz, pictured with his parents, died of a drinking spree at Bowling Green State University last year
While alcohol intoxication is a leading cause of death from haze, it is not the sole root of the problem.
Drum Major Robert Champion was beaten to death by fraternity boys participating in a hazing challenge in 2011
Other incidents include that of Stuart Lathrop Pierson, an 18-year-old who died in 1905 after being tied to railroad tracks in the Delta Kappa Epsilon at Kenyon College in Ohio as part of a vexatious prank.
A newspaper article from that year headlined: “Was this student bullied to death?”.
The coroner determined that Stuart was either tied to the tracks or somehow couldn’t get away fast enough as a locomotive train approached him.
In another 2019 incident, Western Michigan University student Bailey Broderick was killed when she was struck by a van being driven by a drunk Promise who was performing one of his duties – ferrying his fraternity brothers around campus.
The parents of drum major Robert Champion, who was beaten to death in 2011, are on trial while his killers face manslaughter charges
In 2018, Collin Wiant died of asphyxiation after inhaling nitrous oxide from a whipped cream canister at Sigma Pi.
Five years earlier, students Marvell Edmondson and Jauwan Holmes drowned after a night of drinking at Virginia State University. They had tried swimming in a river.
Hazing is a felony in 13 states if it results in serious injury or death.
These states are Florida, Texas, California, Utah, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and New Jersey.
Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana do not have specific harassment laws.