Penn State student’s hazing death is the focus of upcoming Hulu series

A story about the ugly history of fraternity hazing at Penn State and how it factored into the excruciating death of a pledge, Tim Piazza, in 2017 has now been picked up by Hulu for a limited series release.

The series by the former head of NBC will be based off a 2017 article in The Atlantic by Caitlin Flanagan that covered the agonizing details of Piazza’s injury and death after falling down a set of basement stairs at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Her article also chronicled the persistence of hazing over the years despite outrage by parents and efforts by schools.

Piazza died after laying injured in the house for 12 hours without any medical intervention. His fraternity brothers, not wanting any undue attention, waited for 12 hours before calling for help, and then it was too late.

No timetable was provided for when the series will premiere. But Kordel Davis, a former fraternity brother of Piazza, who is working as a consultant on the project, indicated it would be “in a few years,” when he posted about the project on Facebook.

Davis tried to get his fraternity brothers to call 911. He told them Piazza could have a concussion and they shouldn’t let Piazza “sleep it off.” But they ignored him, pushed him against a wall and told him they knew better, according to court documents and video surveillance from inside the fraternity house.

Since Davis had only been a member of the house for a few months, he backed down after he said they made him question himself. The article in the Atlantic explored how “zero tolerance” policies toward hazing can inadvertently encourage fraternity members to do nothing when a medical emergency happens because they don’t want the hazing to be revealed.

The series will reach a new audience who may not have heard the story or understand how pervasive hazing remains, Davis said.

“This may be the true reach it takes in order to progress the hazing prevention movement even further,” he posted on his Facebook page. “This should never have to be someone’s life story.”

Piazza’s parents helped created a national anti-hazing coalition and often travel the country to talk to college students and Greek organizations about the dangers and importance of speaking up when something happens. They are grateful for the new series to keep the light on the seemingly inexorable problem.

In recent travels in North Dakota, Evelyn Piazza said her Uber driver hadn’t heard about her son’s death despite nearly nonstop news coverage the summer of 2018 when the district attorney filed more than 1,000 charges against more 18 fraternity brothers. It was among the largest criminal indictments against a fraternity and its members in American history.

The driver told her he wasn’t sure if hazing was as bad as it used to be.

“It’s worse than what he could possibly remember,” Evelyn Piazza said. “So I feel like it’s important to raise awareness and keep the conversation going that hazing needs to end and significant change needs to happen in how students interact with other students and how schools, organizations and the judicial system deal with hazing cases.” Hazing is brutal, reckless and truly abuse, she said, it should never be treated lightly or ignored. “And no one should ever say “ Boys are just being boys — they didn’t mean anything by it’ because hazing is never an accident and it’s always done with the intention to cause some kind of harm.”

There were at least 6 hazing deaths last year so it’s still a problem that needs to be dealt with, Piazza said.

Here is an excerpt from Flanagan’s article in The Atlantic:

“So let us now imagine all the forces arrayed against 19-year-old Tim Piazza as he gets dressed in his jacket and tie, preparing to go to his new chapter house and accept the bid the brothers have offered him.

He is up against a university that has allowed hazing to go on for decades; a fraternity chapter that has hazed pledge classes at least twice in the previous 12 months; a set of rules that so harshly punishes hazing that the brothers will think it better to take a chance with his life than to face the consequences of having made him get drunk; and a “checking system” provided by a security firm that is, in many regards, a sham. He thinks he is going to join a club that his college endorses, and that is true. But it is also true that he is setting off to get jumped by a gang, and he won’t survive.”