In their anger and sorrow, they will hope to press criminal charges. The grieving parents will appear on television. The story is ultimately about the callousness and even cruelty of white men. Because the culprits are also relatively affluent white suburban kids, there is no need to fear pandering to the racial bias that favors stories about this type of victim. The media will feast on the story, which provides an excuse to pay an unwarranted amount of attention to something viewers are always interested in: the death of a relatively affluent white suburban kid. He may “ban” the fraternity from campus, but since the fraternity will have probably closed the chapter already, he will be revealed as weak. He will be forced into announcing his own set of limp reforms. But he knows-or will soon discover-that fraternity executives do not serve at the pleasure of college presidents. The president of the college or university where the tragedy occurred will make bold statements about ensuring there is never another fraternity death at his institution. In short order it will “recolonize” on the campus, and in a few years the house will be back in business.Ĭheck out more from this issue and find your next story to read. ![]() Its most dramatic act will be to shut down the chapter, and the house will stand empty for a time, its legend growing ever more thrilling to students who walk past and talk of a fraternity so off the chain that it killed a guy. The fraternity enters a “period of reflection” it may appoint a “blue-ribbon panel.” It will announce reforms that look significant to anyone outside the system, but that are essentially cosmetic. And with each new death, the various stakeholders perform in ways that are so ritualized, it’s almost as though they are completing the second half of the same hazing rite that killed the boy. For more feature stories, read aloud, download the Audm app for your iPhone.Įvery year or so brings another such death, another healthy young college man a victim of hazing at the hands of one of the nation’s storied social fraternities. Listen to the audio version of this article here. He had fallen down a flight of stairs during a hazing event at his fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, but the members had waited nearly 12 hours before calling 911, relenting only when their pledge “looked fucking dead.” Tim underwent surgery shortly after arriving at Hershey, but it was too late. Now he had a lacerated spleen, an abdomen full of blood, and multiple traumatic brain injuries. He was a handsome, redheaded kid with a shy smile, a hometown girlfriend, and a family who loved him very much. Eighteen hours earlier, he had been in the kind of raging good health that only teenagers enjoy. ![]() on Friday, February 3, Tim Piazza, a sophomore at Penn State University, arrived at Hershey Medical Center by helicopter.
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