DA blasts Penn State’s oversight of fraternities
Ms. Miller said.
Ms. Parks Miller referred to an earlier instance which the Beta Theta Pi national organization suspended the chapter. “Penn State allowed them to reopen a year later without any investigation,” she said.
“The grand jury just could not understand these contradictions.”
The university long has maintained it has no control over the IFC because Greek organizations are separate from the university, Ms. Parks Miller said.
“It’s not separate. They’re not separate at all,” she said. “They aren’t powerless.”
She said it’s clear, because, “Tim died and they took complete control of it. There’s your proof.”
Mr. Piazza’s death in February — and subsequent prosecutions — triggered intense media coverage. As the year went on, the case became part of a widening national discussion on Greek life as other universities from Ohio to Florida sanctioned or suspended Greek systems following incidents on their campuses.
In May, an earlier grand jury presentment in Mr. Piazza’s death chronicled the events in the fraternity house just off the University Park campus. He and 13 other pledges on Feb. 2 were subjected to a forced-drinking ritual called “the gauntlet,” moving from location to location and consuming beer, wine and vodka.
Mr. Piazza, who tumbled down stairs, sustained severe injuries. But he was not transported by ambulance for 12 hours and succumbed to injuries on Feb. 4 at Hershey Medical Center.
Prosecutors initially charged 18 fraternity brothers. But after a multi-day preliminary hearing this summer, a judge in September dismissed the most serious charges, including involuntary manslaughter. Parks in
Asserting an error in law, Ms. Parks Miller refiled the charges in October, adding charges to an additional 12 fraternity members.
Some of the charges resulted from a video that police say was deleted by a fraternity brother but recovered by investigators with help from the FBI.
Mr. Piazza’s death occurred amid ongoing attempts by Penn State to curb alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and other problems within the fraternity system. The school has further cracked down and earlier this fall announced disciplinary actions against students in the case.
Of 32 students that faced discipline, more than half have left the campus.
Penn State, in its response, said the university’s efforts to curb alcohol abuse were ignored or dismissed by the grand jury and noted that campus drinking is a pervasive and national issue. It also bemoaned “relatively weak” hazing and underage drinking laws.
“Notwithstanding all this, the report suggests that the university and its officials — with the weakest ‘control’ over these organizations (that of University recognition) — should be expected to solve this problem alone,”according to the response.
“That makes no sense. Experts in this field agree there is an obvious need for partnership and cooperation at all levels, if we are to make progress.”
The university also pledged to continue to educate, investigate and discipline students involved in drinking.
“Alcohol abuse and hazing, the governance of private fraternities, and the relationship between law enforcement and the internal disciplinary process confront academic institutions across the country. They are deep rooted and pervasive in our society. There are no easy answers. We welcome thoughtful advice and suggestions. The University is prepared to be a leader, but not a scapegoat.” women by claiming religious objections. It would allow any company that is not publicly traded to deny coverage on moral grounds.
The Obama administration had exempted strictly religious organizations, such as churches, from a requirement that female employees get free contraceptives as a preventive-care measure after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The administration did require that female employees of faithbased schools and charities receive such contraceptives, and allowed employers to serve notice they were opting out of such coverage, in which case the insurance companieswould supply them directly.
But Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh as well as other plaintiffs contended that even serving an opt-out notice would make them complicit in providing contraceptives.
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and Geneva College, a Presbyterian school in Beaver Falls, filed separate lawsuits in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging the Obamacare mandate on contraceptives. They settled the suits when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the new policy in October.
The diocese declined to comment Friday on the new ruling because its attorneys had not reviewed it.
Attorneys for the Trump administration had argued in court documents that the rules were about “protecting a narrow class of sincere religious and moral objectors from being forced to facilitate practices that conflict with their beliefs.”
Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat, sued on the basis that the Trump administration’s rules violated various amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and procedures by which the federal government can adopt new rules. He said the federal government must notify the public, publish proposed rules and