[KappaKittyCat]

Shadokat,

In this particular case, had something happened to Jordan, Mara, Candace, or Amanda when they left the hotel (either the Westin or the one at which Sigma had reserved rooms), the question would be, "Did the sisters have a reasonable idea that they were intoxicated and therefore in danger of injury or violation due to their lowered defenses?" If so, then as sisters who had pledged loyalty and friendship to each other, they had a duty to look out for each other.

I'll use the example from the "Something of Value" presentation in which I participated in the hopes that it clarifies:

Katie Kappa is terribly intoxicated at formal, falling down and blacking out for several minutes at a time. Her big sister, the social chair, and the chapter president decide that she needs to go home (not to the hospital). They put her and her date (also drunk) in a taxi, give the cabbie money and the address and send them along their way. Her date takes her up to her room and puts her on her bed. She promptly passes out and he leaves. Nobody finds her until the next afternoon. Katie suffers severe brain damage due to alcohol poisoning. The doctors say that they could have saved her had she been brought into the hospital that night instead of the next morning.

Katie's parents sue all three ladies as individuals and the chapter as a whole (not to mention the national organization, but we need not get into that). The parents claim that these sisters had a responsibility to their daughter and that the sisters defaulted on that responsibility. Though nobody forced Katie to drink and the bartenders and security should have also noticed that she was ill (they're also named in the lawsuit), her sisters should have helped her. The family's attorneys cite the mission statement of the Fraternity, which includes "Bonds of friendship, mutual support, opportunities for self-growth, respect for intellectual development, and an understanding of and an allegiance to positive ethical principles." In cross-examining each sister, they ask, "Knowing that your sister is blacking out, seeing her stumbling around drunk, continuing to allow her to drink, putting her in a taxi with a drunk boy who could have done anything to her instead of sending her to the hospital, and not calling to check on her later that night: Do these actions constitute bonds of friendship and mutual support?" They do this with every aspect of Kappa's mission statement and ideals to establish the duty that was owed to Katie, that which her sisters failed to deliver.

The point is this. When you are a member of a sorority, you have a reasonable expectation that your sisters will help you out if you get in a jam. How many stories have we heard about sisters bailing out other sisters that they've never met, all because they took the same vows so many years ago? Katie Kappa had a reasonable expectation that her sisters would keep an eye out for her and protect her. Not that they would babysit her, not that they would police her actions, not that they would tell her that she may or may not drink, but that they would keep her safe if she couldn't keep safe herself. They failed.

As much as I'm sure that Jordan, Mara, Candace, and Amanda hurt and angered their Sigma sisters at that formal, as members of the organization (whether pledge or active) these ladies had a reasonable expectation that at least one of their sisters would have issued a word of caution. Even if the pledges in question had left anyway, the fact that someone had said something would go a long way towards indemnifying the chapter and the individual members.

Again, I have no way of knowing whether they did or they didn't. As someone said in an earlier post, "If it didn't get on TV, then as far as the rest of the world is concerned, it didn't happen." I'll give Sigma the benefit of the doubt and assume that sisters do look out for each other. I also understand that nothing happened to them, but I want us to understand that something could have. I hope that at least one person tried to prevent them from leaving. I also hope that everyone, whether sorority or fraternity, international or local, service, professional, or social, realizes what a near miss Sigma had that night. I hope we learn from it.

Respectfully,
KKC