Rider death a wake-up for awareness
As Lawrentians town-wide went to their mailboxes, or to the newsstand, to get last week’s edition of The Lawrence Ledger, an event far beyond U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s speech in The Bart Luedeke Center was unfolding at Rider University.
By the time readers checked the "This Week" section to see if anything interesting was going on in town, Gary DeVercelly, a freshman at Rider, was in a hospital fighting for his life.
By now, everyone knows the 18-year-old California native did not win that battle. He was pronounced dead the following morning, the result of a night of binge drinking at the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house, where he was a pledge.
Autopsy reports showed he died of alcohol intoxication. His blood alcohol content was .426. By comparison, a person is considered legally drunk in New Jersey when they reach a level of .08.
It is a tragic end to a life that seemed to hold much promise. A fun, laid back, well liked person, Mr. DeVercelly was on "the five-year plan" toward receiving a master’s degree in business, according to friend Lisa Steenstra, who had met Mr. DeVercelly over the summer.
Ms. Steenstra said she does not believe Mr. DeVercelly’s death stemmed from hazing at the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, but rather from a simple "good night gone bad." While it will ultimately be up to the Rider authorities, and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, to decide whether or not that is the case, the event as a whole serves as a startling wake-up call not only to those directly affected by this death, but for anyone who has read about it in the newspaper, on the Web, or seen it on the news.
Excessive drinking, whether part of a fraternity hazing or a casual night out, is just as dangerous a pastime as anything else pursued to extremes. Yet, such activity can be socially accepted. As freshmen, away from home for the first time, students’ drunken exploits are considered a right-of-passage into adulthood. But, anything beyond a moderate amount, whether it’s booze or something else, can be far more dangerous. Unfortunately, as in this case, it also can be fatal.
We are not calling for the ban of alcohol on the Rider campus. First of all, it will never work. People that want to drink will drink. We also are not calling for the dismissal of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity … yet. Investigation will reveal, we hope, what happened that night last week when Mr. DeVercelly consumed more alcohol in one sitting than some people consume in a whole month. Until then, friends and family members, as well as anyone else directly or indirectly affected by this tragedy, must take the opportunity to sit and reflect on what can really happen when we go far beyond excess, whatever that excess may be.
This isn’t some after-school special, this is real life, a fact we have all-too-well been hit in the face with this week.