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Pledge of Chico local dies after 'water hazing'

Chi Tau pledge dies
Becky Regan
News Editor
February 02, 2005

A Chi Tau pledge died about 5 a.m. today after he collapsed during a pledge event, Chico police said.

"It doesn't appear that alcohol played any part in his death," Sgt. Dave Barrow said.

Barrow said 21-year-old Matthew William Carrington was participating in a pledge event that involved physical activity and drinking large quantities of water.

Carrington's cause of death has not been identified, and his medical history is unknown. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

Some cases of water intoxication can cause brain tissues to swell, which may lead to a seizure, coma or death, according to About.com.

Chi Tau member Corey Williams said Carrington's pledge brother woke up everyone in the house when he discovered Carrington was not breathing.

"I woke up to his pledge brother banging on the door saying 'he's not breathing'," Williams said.

Williams was not in the basement when Carrington died, but he said paramedics told him Carrington had a seizure and choked on his tongue. Blood was coming out of Carrington’s ears.

Williams said the pledges had been cleaning the house and participating in fraternity events on Tuesday, but no alcohol was involved. The pledges were sleeping in the basement.

Williams said Carrington's pledge brother told him that he awoke when he heard Carrington making unusual snoring sounds. When the pledge brother realized something wasn’t right, he started to perform CPR on Carrington.

"His pledge brother actually had him in his arms when he stopped breathing," Williams said.

Chi Tau president Ken Dandy said the fraternity has not been able to contact Carrington’s pledge brother since this morning.

Dandy also said no fraternity members know if Carrington has any medical condition that might have caused a seizure.

"We have no idea what the cause of death might be," Dandy said. "Matt was one of the coolest people I’ve met in Chico."

(Doug Case was first with this story)

how sad....
all involved in my thoughts and prayers.

Yep, was on Local TV News in KC this morning, and I am laying in Bed with GLOs running through my Head!:(

What GLO are they affiliated with? Anyone know?

Never Heard of them?

from the San Francisco Chronicle

Pledge dies in hazing at Chico fraternity

http://sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/02...carrington.jpg
A 21-year-old pledge rushing a fraternity in Chico is dead after drinking several gallons of water in a bizarre hazing ritual, his family said.

Chico police detectives have taped off the basement of Chi Tau fraternity where they say the incident occurred, and they are interviewing 14 house members to find out how Matthew Carrington of Pleasant Hill died Wednesday morning. Carrington's friend Mike Quintana, who was the only other pledge present during the night of hazing, told police and Carrington's parents that he and Carrington had been forced to drink about five gallons of water each, had ice water thrown on them and air-conditioning fans turned their way during an all-nighter in the fraternity's basement.

The young men were forced to do push-ups and stand on a bench for hours while answering trivia questions about the house brothers, said Chico police Sgt. Robert Merrifield, who is investigating the case.

"At 5 a.m. this morning (Wednesday) my son was forced to do more push-ups and had a seizure," Debbie Smith said. "They thought he was fine because he was snoring, and they didn't want to get in trouble so they didn't call an ambulance until about an hour later when he wasn't breathing."

Medics kept Carrington alive with CPR, but he was pronounced dead after 6 a.m., shortly after arriving at a local hospital, Merrifield said.

An autopsy will be conducted today. There is no indication alcohol or drugs were involved, authorities said.

Detectives are looking into the allegation that fraternity brothers procrastinated for an hour before calling 911 because they were worried they could get in trouble, Merrifield said.

Carrington moved to Chico in August and was eager to make new friends, his mother said. After graduating in 2001 from Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Carrington worked at Office Depot and Kinko's to earn tuition for Chico. Once in college, he decided to rush Chi Tau, which had a troubled past.

"This fraternity has been dealt with in the past and has no standing with the university," said university spokesman Joe Willis. "They aren't part of the fraternity council, but that raises another problem that they don't have to abide by our guidelines on behavior."

Smith didn't know that Chi Tau used to be called Delta Sigma Phi until 2002, when the house was expelled from Chico State and the Interfraternity Council for serving alcohol to minors.

"They were cut off from the university after a span of about seven years of trouble," said Rick Rees, student activities associate director for Cal State Chico.

In 1995, Rees began getting calls from students that fraternity members were starting unprovoked fistfights on the sidewalks outside the house. Police complained it took five squad cars to break up their parties. A woman filed a sexual assault report. The final straw was the underage drinking, Rees said.

"When a fraternity is kicked out, they leave," Rees said. "What's unusual here is this fraternity is still hanging on under the name it had in 1939, Chi Tau."

Carrington's hazing began in October, his mother said, with more innocuous stunts like sending pledges to the beach to trade their shirts with homeless people. Fraternity brothers videotaped pledges dressed up like prostitutes walking down the street in Southern California, she said.

"But recently I could tell something changed, and he didn't want to talk to me about the rush activities anymore," she said.

Then on her way to work Wednesday morning, she got the phone call no mother wants to get.

"This is ripping my heart out," she said, adding that she was worried about the tragedy's effect on Carrington's younger brother, Travis. "He loves his older brother so much."

Travis Smith, 14, said he was still in denial. He couldn't believe the brother who took him camping in Yosemite, taught him to throw a football and shared his Eminem CDs was gone.

Carrington's aunt, Angie Birdwell, called Cal State Chico officials Wednesday to demand the students involved in the hazing be expelled.

Willis said Carrington's death was a horrible shock. The campus is waiting to see the outcome of the police investigation before it launches its own review to determine possible disciplinary action against the students.

A note is going out today to inform students of the tragedy, and the campus flag will be lowered. Counselors will be ready for grieving students and the campus will help with memorials if the family wishes.

While universities nationwide are grappling with fraternity tragedies, Chico has had its share of bad news.

In October 2002, freshman pledge Adrian Heideman of Palo Alto was found dead in the basement of Chico's Pi Kappa Phi fraternity with a blood alcohol level three times above the legal driving limit. Three house members pleaded no contest to criminal charges related to the forced alcohol binge.

Chico student Quintana, who went through the Chi Tau water ritual with his friend Carrington, was in despair Wednesday.

"Just tell people how great Matt was, how wonderful and beautiful a boy he was," Quintana said.

E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.

This is very sad

Any from Chico out there know if it is the old Delta Sig house?

Quote:

Smith didn't know that Chi Tau used to be called Delta Sigma Phi until 2002, when the house was expelled from Chico State and the Interfraternity Council for serving alcohol to minors.

According to the article, it was.

Quote:

"This fraternity has been dealt with in the past and has no standing with the university," said university spokesman Joe Willis. "They aren't part of the fraternity council, but that raises another problem that they don't have to abide by our guidelines on behavior."

Apparently, the university has has issues with this chapter. This is from the Social Fraternities page of the Chico State website.

Quote:

Note: Chi Tau (XT) was expelled from the University in spring 2002 for alcohol violations. Although the fraternity continues to operate, it is not recognized by the University, the Interfraternity Council or it's former national fraternity Delta Sigma Phi.

Chi Tau upsets frats

This was written back in November of 2003.

Quote:

Chi Tau upsets frats
Kristina Seward
Assistant News Editor
November 19, 2003

If the Interfraternity Council gets what it wants, the Chi Tau fraternity house on Fourth and Chestnut streets would be stripped of its identity.

In an effort to distinguish IFC fraternities from Chi Tau, a local fraternity that was expelled from the university in 2001 for alcohol violations, the IFC is planning to ask the city to remove the fraternity's Greek letters from the front of its house.

"This organization (Chi Tau) is giving Greeks a bad reputation and a bad name," said IFC President Bobby Armstrong. "So we want to exclude ourselves from them."

Armstrong said that during the last two or three IFC meetings, fraternity representatives have vented their frustrations with Chi Tau members, whose fraternity became Chi Tau after it lost its national charter with Delta Sigma Phi.

Armstrong said these frustrations stem from the fact that Chi Tau does not have to follow the same rules, namely alcohol, party and violence policies, and that members have been abusing their freedom.

By having the "XT" letters removed from the front of house, Armstrong said the IFC is hoping community members will no longer associate Chi Tau with the Greek system.

"What we're hoping it will do is that when a police officer or anyone from the community drives by and sees a party there, they're not going to look up and see those letters and say, 'look at those fraternity guys,'" Armstrong said.

Armstrong said IFC fraternities hold themselves to a higher standard than Chi Tau. He said they focus on doing positive and beneficial things for the community and university, like holding blood drives and cleaning up the south campus neighborhood with their Adopt-a-Block program.

"We do all these things and the IFC fraternities feel like all these guys do is party," Armstrong said. "You get people who don't know the difference between IFC and Chi Tau and we want to set ourselves apart. Even though they have Greek letters on their house, don't throw them in the mix with us."

Jesse Chrisp, president of Chi Tau, said he acknowledges that the IFC fraternities are upset with his fraternity because it doesn't have to abide by the same rules.

"They don't like that we don't have to do deferred rush, that we can have socials still, that we own our house and that we can party," Chrisp said.

But Chrisp said that trying to get Chi Tau's letters removed would be a waste of the IFC's time.

"The city's not going to come and take our letters away any more than they would go take their letters away," he said. "They all party just as much as we do."

Bob Summerville, associate planner of Chico, said he would assume that if the fraternity permit was revoked, the letters on the house would come down. But he said he doesn't know what specifically the fraternity would have to do to have its permit revoked.

Chrisp said Chi Tau members are probably viewed as "partiers," but they still make time for charity. Chrisp said for the past two years, Chi Tau members have volunteered to cater a 600-person dinner for Psi World, a non-profit organization.

While Chrisp said his fraternity doesn't plan to stop having parties, he said he would like to see the fighting between Chi Tau members and other fraternity members stop.

"I am tired of all the fights," he said. "We had a big three hour meeting, and we discussed where we wanted to go with our fraternity in terms of fighting."

Chrisp said that the "hot-headed" members of the fraternity are going to cool down and stop fighting.

Nick Miller, pledge educator and member of Sigma Pi, said his fraternity has been involved in a couple disputes with Chi Tau this semester.

But Miller said he would like to see the fraternity be given a chance to improve before having its letters removed from the house. Miller said he sees two options for Chi Tau.

"The first option would be that they get back on track, possibly get back on IFC, and try to get along with other fraternities, which is something I know I would respect and IFC would respect," he said. "The other option is that they continue on the track they're on, and we would continue to try and shut them down."

Miller said if Chi Tau members continue to behave in the way they have, then taking their letters down would be a huge accomplishment for the Greek system.

But he said the ideal situation would be Chi Tau members making a conscious effort to do the right thing.

Connie Huyck, Greek adviser at Chico State, agreed that she would rather see Chi Tau work to improve rather than be pushed away from the Greek system.

Huyck said she would rather see the organization recognized by the university and following rules of Delta Sigma Phi.

"I would prefer to have them with us rather than against us," she said.

Huyck said she has been working with Chi Tau's leadership to become a chapter of the national fraternity Delta Sigma Phi again, but she is not sure if that is still the goal.

Chrisp said Chi Tau is no longer interested in becoming affiliated with Delta Sigma Phi. He said it would only impose more rules and would not offer any benefits.

Chrisp said he would be interested in becoming recognized by the university again because that would allow Chi Tau to participate in fraternity athletics and that his fraternity misses playing sports.

Chrisp said Chi Tau's image is important but they are just trying to have fun.

In an attempt to solve the problems between Sigma Pi and Chi Tau, Huyck has asked the presidents of both fraternities to meet with her and Sgt. Linda Dye, community liaison for the Chico police within the next few weeks.

"It will be an opportunity to air their concerns and differences and figure out a way they can coexist," Huyck said. "What I'm hoping is that we can create a plan of action that both organizations will follow and make peace with the situation."

© 2005 The Orion

Quote:

Originally posted by NinjaPoodle
According to the article, it was.

Oops Can I tell I didn't read the entire article. Thanks!!!!

They talked about this case on NBC's Nightly News earlier this evening.

Quote:

Originally posted by Peaches-n-Cream
They talked about this case on NBC's Nightly News earlier this evening.

Along with several other incidents including two of the deaths here in Colorado, and CU's plan for deferred Rush, etc.

Its not just that one fraternity that has issues.

That entire greek system has issues. I'm not saying that every single chapter in that greek system is a risk management nightmare. There are, however, a disproportional number of major risk management issues that have come from Chico over the years, arguably more than any other greek system in the nation.

Quote:

Originally posted by adpialumcsuc
Oops Can I tell I didn't read the entire article. Thanks!!!!

It mentioned that it was the old fraternity but didn't mention if it was the same house. Could be two different things.

mom was on the today show saturday along with a university spokesman, who seemed a bit pompous.

The Delta Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi at CSU Chico had it's charter revoked the week before I became an initiated in Spring 02. They came down to our house, and said they had reverted back to their local, Chi Tau. Their chapter alumni had not supported the move, so it was done without their permission. I don't know why people have to wait until it's too late to see how stupid some of this crap is....