Hazing Facts from “Breathe, Nolan, Breathe”

“If you lose the ability to walk or to hold your urine, that’s extremely dangerous. That’s the BAC level of .300 or .400. The person may stop getting the circulation they need. These are the warning signs that really scare me, and would make me want to call for help.” – Dr. Joshua Dower

“A part of hazing that is difficult to explain to any audience is consent. There is no such thing as consent in a hazing, because the hazing is by definition hidden, mysterious, and anxiety provoking.” – Dr. Susan Lipkins

“The code of silence is something that I think human beings know- even four-year-olds know when the teacher suddenly turns out the lights and says “who did that?”. Everybody’s quiet. They kind of know not to tell the authority figure…that is part of why we don’t tell and hazing doesn’t get reported.” – Dr. Susan Lipkins

“This is the kind of event that weighs on you over time, and it didn’t have to happen. When you see someone who’s 19 or 20 years old, who’s life is just beginning, it’s unfortunate that these tragedies happen, but they happen across the country. The one thing that we should get people to understand is that hazing is not a ritual, it’s criminal. In this case, a young person lost his life. Hazing has to stop.” – Bob Roberts

“It seems to me that kids have been drinking on college campuses forever; what people don’t understand is that when someone dies of an alcohol overdose, that kid did not choose to drink that much: they were coerced.” –Dr. Susan Lipkins

“If you see somebody whose health is impaired, call us. We’d rather come on those calls and address that health concern before it becomes a tragedy; and it’s getting people to understand that that is the challenge.” Bob Roberts

“By moving the drinking age to 21 on a college campus, you’ve created a binge-drinking society- which is almost unholy. They’ll go into dark places, in basements, and they’ll become so intoxicated that their behavior changes dramatically.” – E. Gordon Gee

“I think the open-door policy is somewhat of a myth. In practice, I don’t think it ends up being true. If it were true, everybody would just choose to be a fraternity brother without doing any hazing at all.” – Andrew Lohse

“Nothing is worth the risk of not taking these events seriously. Any fear you might have in the future of being the guy who pulled the alarm on something will be nothing compared to the feeling that you could’ve done something to save your friend’s life and didn’t.” – Andrew Lohse

“Seeing someone laying there like that and not calling for help; I’ll never understand that. They can take a photo of someone soiling themselves but they couldn’t call 911.” – Kim Burch

“If the culture was still a beer culture, I would have less concerns and issues. Liquor has such a different impact on these young people’s lives than beer.” –Bob Roberts

“If someone is breathing less than eight times a minute under the influence of alcohol, their breathing and pulse can eventually stop. If you can’t wake someone up, pretty much for any medical reason, you need to call a doctor.” – Dr. Joshua Dower