By Amanda RomeoSpecial to the Chronicle

Max Gruver was 18 years old, when he entered his freshman year at Louisiana State University. On Sept. 14, he passed away shortly after attending a Phi Delta Theta fraternity party. His autopsy revealed a highly elevated blood alcohol level, in addition to THC in his system.  Consequently, all Greek life activities at LSU have been indefinitely suspended, as the death is being investigated as a possible hazing incident.

It goes without saying that any time a life is ended too soon, it is a tragedy. However, when the same tragedy continues to occur over and over again to a frequently increasing number of people across the country, it becomes something more than just that.

The word epidemic is defined as “a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.”  By this time in its history, America has seen far too many deaths similar to that of Max Gruver’s, yet the count of these deaths continues to rise rapidly despite all the countless efforts made by universities and Greek life to closely monitor organizations and enforce strict restrictions and anti-hazing policies.

It seems now as if the American youths’ party culture has become something of an epidemic. We all see and hear about it everywhere: kids start to drink as young as 14, while 16 and 17 year olds get blacked out at college bars.  We also know that many kids who start partying underage are more likely to engage in binge drinking.  It is hard to realize how very real the dangers of partying just a little too hard can be, and it can be especially hard to recognize at even younger ages.

Somewhere along the line binge drinking has definitely evolved to play a big part in American party culture.  If we are going to solve this epidemic, it is essential that we as a country acknowledge the fact that this is not just happening in fraternities and sororities and it does not exclusively happen because of hazing.  If you go out to a few college bars, you will find the same kinds of risky behaviors being practiced as those at any Greek life parties.  This country has been singularly focusing on “cracking down on hazing” for a very long time now, so if we are actually going to stop this from happening again, we have to stop and ask ourselves: What are we doing wrong in preventing these terrible deaths?

I have never been personally involved in any Greek life organizations, but I know my fair share of people who are and I know how serious these organizations take their policies.  Phi Delta Theta suspended their LSU chapter immediately following the death of Gruver – regardless of whether or not the incident was the result of hazing – due to their strict Alcohol-Free Housing policy.  Most fraternities and sororities have also already implemented policies like this, but the behavior continues everywhere, not just in their house parties.

The majority of Americans will agree that the 21-year-old drinking age is too high when 18-year-olds are able to serve in the armed forces.  Perhaps it is for this reason that we as a nation have become so extremely lax on underage drinking all together.  Perhaps if it were legal to drink at 18 years old, excessive underage drinking wouldn’t seem so necessary.

At any rate, it remains imperative that the country becomes more serious about making Gruver’s case the last added to a list of tragedies that should have never happened.  What we need to do is pay closer attention to the drinking habits of underage kids, and get more serious about our drinking laws, no matter what those laws may be.  Right now, the law we have in place is one that only a minority of American citizens truly abide by, which ultimately renders it pointless. Perhaps it isn’t just the Greek life organizations and their policies that need reform, perhaps it is the whole country and its laws.

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