College Drinking Death Inspires Film

A college freshman named Gordie was prompted to drink and drink and drink as a part of his fraternity initiation. After he passed out, the fraternity guys just put him in a room with other people in the same condition and left him to sleep it off. His roommate headed back to his dorm room after joining others in writing goofy comments with a sharpie all over Gordie.

But Gordie wasn’t just sleeping it off. He died. By the time someone was called and arrived, rigor mortis had already set in and there was nothing that could be done for him.

His story has been told in an excellent film that came out of Colorado Springs, entitled “Haze.” It was produced by Watt Imagination! and directed by Pete Schuermann who has worked on film projects for The Walt Disney Company, MGM Lions Gate and Yamaha.

The film interviews Gordie’s parents and roommate and college officials, but it doesn’t stop there. Some of the experts featured are Joseph Califano Jr, the Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Chuck Hurley, CEO of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), and Barry Seaman, former TIME Magazine reporter and author of the book Binge, Excess in the Age of Disconnection.

One poignant comment from Gordie’s father was that, “Nobody ever told us that we could die from drinking alcohol.” Gordie had been warned against everything that parents could tell him about, including drunk driving. But they didn’t realize that binge drinking, which is 5+ drinks in a night (and in severe cases generally 15 or more) can kill a person with alcohol poisoning.

This film is available free to watch online and it can also be obtained to be shown as a group presentation. Those who made it would like to see it make a difference in the lives of young people – by keeping them alive. The photographer tagged along on some police runs and EMS runs and there is significant graphic footage of drunken college students bloody from falling over or getting into a fight that they won’t even remember. One college girl remarks that if she sleeps around while drunk no one criticizes, but if she does it sober, she gets a bad reputation. The experts analyze and discuss the problem; all are searching for answers.

Please, watch the film, and get it into the hands of as many people as you can. There were 1700 deaths and thousands of injuries last year due to alcohol. It needs to stop.