ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — The University of Virginia (UVA) has suspended one of its fraternities after a student went into a coma following what is alleged to have been a hazing incident.
According to CBS19 in Charlottesville, the Jefferson Independent, UVA’s student newspaper, reported that a student pledging Kappa Sigma is in a coma after drinking heavily and falling down a flight of stairs, hitting his head.
Leo Brown, the vice president of external affairs for Kappa Sigma, released a statement saying that the fraternity was aware of the incident and that “any member found to violate the Fraternity’s Code of Conduct, which strictly forbids hazing for the disgusting act that it is, will be held accountable.”
The UVA chapter of Kappa Sigma has since been suspended, pending an investigation by the university.
70 students across the country have died in hazing incidents connected to college fraternities since 2000, according to CBS19. One of them was Adam Oakes, a 19-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman who died from alcohol poisoning in 2021 while pledging the VCU chapter of Delta Chi. Around a year later, “Adam’s Law” was passed in Virginia, requiring hazing-prevention training and education for all of the commonwealth’s college students.
