Joe Dado, fraternity death at Penn State, when will they learn?

Joe Dado was a freshman at Penn. State. He engaged in drinking massive quantities of alcohol at a frat party and turned up missing the next morning. He was found, dead, in a stairwell, an alcohol related death.

There was legal action, "Two students, (John “Jack” A. Townsend and Jennifer E. Clifford) and two fraternities, (one of the fraternities, Alpha Tau Omega was found guilty of unlawful acts related to liquor, malt and brewed beverages, and a court sentenced the fraternity to 70 days of community service and a $500 fine). are charged with misdemeanors, accused of providing Penn State freshman Joseph Dado with beer, shots of vodka and whiskey and marijuana before the 18-year-old was "pointed in the right direction" of his dorm and began to walk home alone."

I  think the two students managed to get assigned to the ARD program, (it is hard to tell, the records seem to have vanished off the Internet). "If they can prove themselves, then they can have their records expunged," Shubin said of the ARD program. "It's largely successful." Contributing to the death of an 18 year old and then having your record expunged is good legal support if you can get it.

There was talk of a "serious change" at Penn. State.  "“Joe Dado’s death had an impact on the student body in a way that we had not seen before,” Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers told the Collegian in September 2010. “It made [students] think about excessive drinking, being responsible for themselves and being responsible for others.”

But did things actually change? I could point out falls from windows and other events, but the one that is in the news right now is Timothy Piazza.  At least this time, perhaps the records of those charged with involuntary manslaughter will not vanish. Most of the stories do not mention the charged by name, here is one that does. The story is already starting to sink, after all, how can it compete with the latest Trump tweet? And Penn State did not even send a representative to Timothy's funeral, (apparently they could not spare someone from their 26k employees), though they did attend his vigil. So, I guess the way the family put it is true, "The parents of a Penn State University student who fatally fell down stairs during an alcohol-fueled event described their son's death as "torture" and said the fraternity brothers involved "treated our son as road kill."

6/20/17 The Piazza case is working through the court system. With incoming students the incident has had some effect, at least for now.