Parents of Cornell freshman found dead at bottom of a gorge after 'dirty rush' hazing night sue the college for turning blind eye and describe the seven rounds of binge-drinking games he was forced to endure

UK Daily Mail ^ | January 30, 2020 | Jennifer Smith

[C19fan]

The parents of a Cornell freshman who was found dead at the bottom of a gorge after a hazing prank are suing the college and the fraternity he was joining the night he died.

Antonio Tsialas died in October last year after a night of brutal drinking and hazing with Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in Ithaca, New York, at a 'Christmas in October' party.

His body was found in a gorge and he had high levels of alcohol in his system but his family's attorney says his cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma to the body. They do not know how he sustained it.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, his parents accuse the university of turning a blind eye to the school's hazing culture and they name many of the fraternity's members, claiming they did nothing to save their son's life.

[C19fan]

Nobody forces a person to attempt to join a Greek. Everyone knows hazing is an integral part of the culture. This is not wanting to play football and being subjected to hazing.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I agree. No one is forced to drink. If you join a fraternity, you know that heavy drinking is part of it. That doesn’t make it right but you know what you are getting into. The kid probably drank voluntarily but drank way too much and ended up falling into the gorge and getting killed by the fall. I sympathize with the parents for the pain they feel for losing their son. And the urge to blame someone else is understandable in that situation. But that doesn’t make it right. Absent some proof that someone forced him to drink, they need to accept that he did it to himself.

[Not A Snowbird]

... he was forced to endure...

Not to excuse the frat, but he was not FORCED to endure anything. He could have walked away at any time.

[Hyman Roth]

Nothing worse than Frat boys.

[Does so]

The headline takes the reader astray...

[max americana]

Not for everyone. Not one casualty at my university frat close to 100 years. We know who to recruit and those who wont make it during hell week..

[Ron H.]

So the hazers held a gun to the of the dead students head and threatened to shoot him if he didn’t participate, is that it?

[C19fan]

I would not make it through Hell Hour.....

[Fightin Whitey]

The headline takes the reader astray...

Troodat.

I had to pour a drink just to steady myself.

[Tax-chick]

I feel terrible for his family.

[pnut22]

Thought the parents were found dead an Hillary had some skin in the game somewhere. Just bad writing.

[Skywise]

It’s sad and tragic that he died - and I think the frat bears some responsibility to make sure he got home safely (or not leave)

But this wasn’t forced at all.

[canuck_conservative]

He could have walked away at any time

Let me guess, you think if a woman gets raped, she deserved it because "she could have left at any time"? Go crawl back to your cave

A lot of students join these frats thinking they can trust them

... and then the frat members pressure the candidate to drink more than he wants to, effectively losing control

There some truly sick bullies in SOME of these fraternities, just waiting to exploit and abuse an innocent target ... that sounds like what happened here

[deport]

Antonio's body was found in this gorge two days after he vanished. He died of multiple blunt force trauma

[dfwgator]

City of Evil ping

[Not A Snowbird]

Let me guess, you think if a woman gets raped, she deserved it because "she could have left at any time"? Go crawl back to your cave

Of course not. I was commenting on the headline, and I believe I said that I wasn't excusing the frat.

There is a major difference between peer pressure of a fraternity and a violent rape attack.

[Dr. Sivana]

Nothing worse than Frat boys

Except maybe floozies making up rape stories about them and government officials willing to ruin all thei lives in the service of those lies.

[nbenyo]

So glad I commuted to a local college. No debt and no stupidity.

[max americana]

haha you’re too hard on yourself..

[C19fan]

I have low tolerance to alcohol. Drinking one beer turns my face beet red.