Spring Break
Hazing, drinking on foundation's agenda
Blair Bernier, Contributing Writer, bbernier@smu.edu
Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: News
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In the morning of Sept. 17, 2004, police received a frantic 9-1-1 call from fraternity members at the University of Colorado at Boulder. When police arrived, they found 18-year-old Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr. lying face down with racial slurs written all over his body in permanent ink. He had been dead for hours.
Freshman Lynn Gordon "Gordie" Bailey Jr. had been in school for only a month when he decided to pledge the Chi Psi Fraternity. The fraternity's bid night involved taking 26 pledges to the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest and leaving them there until the group drank four handles (1.75 liter bottles) of whiskey and six (1.5 liter) bottles of wine. In less than 30 minutes, the alcohol was gone.
Gordie, along with his fellow pledges, returned to the fraternity house visibly intoxicated. According to the Gordie Foundation Web site, he was left to "sleep it off," and no one checked on him for the rest of the night.
Many people were affected by the loss, none more so than Leslie Lanahan, Gordie's mother. Lanahan immediately decided to turn the tragedy into a learning experience for young adults across the nation. With the help of her husband and family friend, Jane Navin, Lanahan formed the Gordie Foundation.
"To know you may have saved a life or educated a new generation that will take a call to action to spread awareness is an incredible feeling," Navin said in an e-mail interview.
Hazing, as defined by the SMU Code of Conduct, is "any intentional, knowing or reckless act, occurring on or off the campus of an educational institution, by one person alone or acting with others, directed against a student, that endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, holding office in, or maintaining membership in any organization whose members are or include, students at an educational situation." According to stophazing.org, more than 130 deaths caused by fraternity hazing have been reported.
Freshman Lynn Gordon "Gordie" Bailey Jr. had been in school for only a month when he decided to pledge the Chi Psi Fraternity. The fraternity's bid night involved taking 26 pledges to the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest and leaving them there until the group drank four handles (1.75 liter bottles) of whiskey and six (1.5 liter) bottles of wine. In less than 30 minutes, the alcohol was gone.
Gordie, along with his fellow pledges, returned to the fraternity house visibly intoxicated. According to the Gordie Foundation Web site, he was left to "sleep it off," and no one checked on him for the rest of the night.
Many people were affected by the loss, none more so than Leslie Lanahan, Gordie's mother. Lanahan immediately decided to turn the tragedy into a learning experience for young adults across the nation. With the help of her husband and family friend, Jane Navin, Lanahan formed the Gordie Foundation.
"To know you may have saved a life or educated a new generation that will take a call to action to spread awareness is an incredible feeling," Navin said in an e-mail interview.
Hazing, as defined by the SMU Code of Conduct, is "any intentional, knowing or reckless act, occurring on or off the campus of an educational institution, by one person alone or acting with others, directed against a student, that endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, holding office in, or maintaining membership in any organization whose members are or include, students at an educational situation." According to stophazing.org, more than 130 deaths caused by fraternity hazing have been reported.
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