Grieving Parents Share Sons’ Fraternity Hazing Stories

they're a way to find community at college but over the years too many lives have been lost at some fraternities during hazing rituals these grieving parents think that that might stop if young people knew their stories our Lisa Guerrero was here to tell some of them this is our son Ryan who was killed due to idiocy at a hazing event this is my beautiful son Colin Wyant he was 18 years old when he died from fraternity hazing this is our son Tim who died as a result of a fraternity hazing event this is Adam Oaks it was death was due to a hazing incident alcohol poisoning seven young men all victims of hazing rituals like this I am telling you no parent should ever send their child off to campus to college and not have them come home they were all told that they had to go down to the basement I think they were all blindfolded this surveillance video shows a rare look at a booze fueled hazing event common in frats across the country known as Big Brother night or pledge dad reveal night it was the Pledge dad reveal night they were handed a bottle of alcohol and Danny's case was handed a bottle of Tito's and they were told to drink it that's Mary Pat and Tom santulli's son Danny with the leader of vodka I believe it was taped to his hand cops say Danny's pledge dad forced him to drink the equivalent of 20 shots plus dual full beer bong he later went into cardiac arrest from alcohol poisoning in the video shared with us by the santulli's attorney David Bianchi you can see Danny fall over he later slides off this couch onto his head they don't know what to do they're afraid to call 9-1-1 so they don't and they pick them up they drop him on his head surveillance video you would think would incentivize these guys not to do this stuff but they do it anyway and this is Danny today wheelchair bound from permanent brain damage Danny is the most horribly injured fraternity pledge ever in the United States he's blind cannot speak he lost his vision and he cannot talk Jack and Wendy Abel says their son Ryan went through a similar frat hazing ritual at the University of Nevada in Reno it was a big brother reveal night where each of 30 pledges were handed a bottle of abuse and a full 750 liter milliliter bottle of alcohol in Ryan's case it was 100 Proof and they were expected to drink the bottle one of the goal was to also get them all drunk and vomiting extremely intoxicated Ryan later died from head trauma after falling down a flight of stairs Timothy piazza's parents say he fell down a flight of stairs after he was told to drink 18 shots in 82 minutes while pledging a frat at Penn State University it's not the same hazing that happened 20 30 years ago it is not just streaking and swallowing goldfish it is hard alcohol deadly hard alcohol we have a friend who's unconscious he's hasn't moved he's charging into it was there any alcohol or anything involved do you know yes sir his parents say Timothy lay there in distress for over 12 hours before Brothers called 9-1-1 according to published reports there have been close to 80 college students who've died in hazing incidents connected to Greek life in the past 15 years the vast majority of them related to alcohol abuse Adam Jeffrey Oaks age 19 died suddenly on Saturday February 27 2021 in Richmond Virginia just last year freshman Adam Oaks died from alcohol poisoning after his big brother forced him to drink a handle of booze in under an hour my son was joining the fraternity and his Big Brother bought him a handle of alcohol and coerced him to drink it in under an hour Andrew was Adam's Big Brother as part of the plea agreement several members of the now permanently banned frat are speaking out publicly about what they did to Adam I was charged with misdemeanor hazing and I think that was an accurate charge on my part I think being the president of the fraternity um I had this position of power and I chose the wrong path in the wrong road the video was part of an upcoming hazing docu-series called protect this house in 2021 there were six deaths due to hazing many of these parents now traveled the country speaking to pledges and students urging them to report hazing incidents hazing's only reported five percent of the time Tyler Perino is one of the few to report it big brother night that was the most I'd ever Drank in that short amount of time in my life he says on his big brother night at Delta Tau Delta frat brothers hazed him with a bottle of whiskey and a six-pack and then paddled him repeatedly I was taken out on a stretcher for my dorm to the ambulance and then taken to the hospital his blood alcohol was nearly three times the legal limit it was the worst nightmare to come true we obviously are very lucky that that he's still here with us today he and his mom Lori and all these folks want pledges to know it's okay to say no and walk away and more importantly not be afraid to call 9-1-1 if something goes wrong in Danny santulli's case no one called 9-1-1 the santulli's attorney says Andrews law in Florida named after Andrew Kofi a pledge who died from alcohol poisoning after being forced to drink an entire bottle of whiskey should be enacted Nationwide it says that if you are the first person to call 9-1-1 after a hazing event where somebody's in trouble even if you're the person that did The Hazing even if you're the one who handed him the bottle of alcohol if you're the first one to call 9-1-1 to try to save his life or if you're administering CPR and trying to help them well help us on the way you will not be prosecuted you will have immunity how many of you believe that your loved one would be okay today if someone had called 9-1-1 earlier is there any way to stop fraternity hazing I think they need to tell their kids to understand all our stories to understand what happened because you know kids think well it can't happen to me it does happen it did happen it will happen again until things change my goal and many of us parents our goal is to speak to college students to high school students so that we can raise awareness we do not want any other families in what is in this club of parents who have frankly lost their child senselessly to hazing we want to make a difference we want to educate and we want to make sure that this does never happen again and we'll just keep fighting and we'll never give up the North American interfraternity Council which overseas fraternity says they have spent enormous resources to educate students about the dangers of hazing and say they're working to strengthen current criminal and civil hazing penalties around the country

Channel: Inside Edition

Views: 467,683

Keywords: crime, school, investigation, Inside edition, inside_edition, ie newsdesk, ie investigation, fraternity, college, parents, students, hazing, ritual, caught on camera, alcohol poisoning, freshman, pledge night, university, secretive, greek life, lisa guerrero

Id: Rikz9eAChNI

Length: 7min 55sec (475 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 26 2022