The Harvard study also found that students drink to get drunk (47%), drink because of the status associated with drinking, drink because it is a tradition and culture or because of peer pressure, and/or academic stress (“Binge drinking on college campuses”). Indeed, MIT ignored the numerous letters and warnings by former students, but they probably did, because fighting against such big and widespread traditions seems very hopeless. Even if they had reacted there would not have been a guarantee that Scott had not been with the same guys at the same night, doing the same exact thing he did. Since he was under aged, he acted against the state’s law in the first place and would not have cared much more about a campus law that forbids binging.
Truly, some students drink because of peer pressure, which is defined as the attempt from people your age to influence you one way or another (Lyness, 2001). Studies like Ash’s Conformity Experiment and the Milgram Experiment showed its meaning. The first one demonstrates how peer pressure can influence someone to change his mind from what he knows for sure is a correct answer to the incorrect answer, just because everyone else gives the incorrect answer. The second one shows how careless somebody would hurt another person, because an authority figure tells him to (“Conformity Studies”). The Wave is another example. In this movie, which is based on a true story, a teacher wants to give his students an answer to the question why so many Germans ignored the killing around them during the third Reich. He therefore creates a group called THE WAVE and is amazed how easy it is to make them follow him and how easily they give up their personalities to be a part of this group. He continues the experiment and sees the group grow nearly by itself. Other kids want to join, to feel the same bond. It becomes a need for them to be with the group and do everything for the group, no matter what their personal opinion is. Shortly before the teacher finally puts an end to the Wave they even started hurting others who didn’t conform. This experiment gave the students their answer as well as an idea about how people would follow an authority person blindly and substituted the group's personality for their own because they want to conform to the group (“The Wave”).
We unfortunately don’t know why Scott was drinking, but let us go on with this thought and pretend peer pressure was a drinking cause for him. In this case his fraternity brothers would have forced him to binge by putting mental stress on him. But aren’t we all from the "Just say no" generation, and haven’t we all been sufficiently brainwashed that there is nothing wrong with saying no to peer pressure and being what we want to be, even when it makes us different from a group? Scott could have easily turned around and left the house. I also wonder why he chose to live there in the first place. Like you provided in your Broadcast piece, everybody seemed to know, what was going on in this fraternity. Therefore it seems very suspicious to me, that somebody, who did not plan to drink, would pick this house, which is very well known for its drinking parties, instead of a dorm. Scott surly knew that Fraternities, by nature, must haze and binge drink in order to bond because they exist for no other purpose than the bonding itself. He was living there for five weeks, so even when he wasn’t aware of this fact at the beginning, he had enough time to change his mind. If he wanted to avoid the hazing, and he certainly knew of it after one month, he would have just gone. But he stayed and took part in this action that recklessly endangered his physical health only for being a member, a brother, in this fraternity ("Hazing - A Definition.").
This brings us back to the point that we don’t know Scott’s motivation to drink. It could have been peer pressure, in which case he was able to turn around. It could have been the status associated with drinking or just the tradition, which means that he had to choose between conforming and being an individual. But maybe he was drinking to get drunk, which would be a sign of his will to drink and perfectly fit with his determined choice of exactly this fraternity. Perhaps Scott just wanted to break out of the perfect life his parents planned for him. However, no matter how you turn it, at the end it was his own and free made decision to swallow a substance that is by its very nature a poison. Actions have consequences and individual responsibility as well as personal accountability are things he should have learned by the age of 18.
I am certain that Scott's parents would prefer to imagine the big bad upperclassmen holding their son's mouth open and pouring liquor down his throat. The truth of the matter, however, is that this did not occur. Plain and simple, Scott swallowed his own poison, willingly and joyfully. In my opinion not MIT, but his parents failed him, in more ways than one. First of all, it was their job to impart the values and moral standards of society on their son. They should have taught him that being different is nothing bad and he should never stop thinking for himself. Secondly, they could have checked the university, especially the fraternity house he would chose later and without much research they would have found its reputation. Why didn’t they take that time together with their son, instead of accusing MIT for Scott’s death now? They let him down by not being accountable parents during the time he needed them the most, the step from being a kid to becoming a responsible adult that thinks for himself and follows his own values.
All in all, I don’t think that your presentation of this story was fair. You clearly appealed on the emotions of the audience to feel bad for the Kruegers by showing them for 10 minutes in which they were glorifying their son, talking about how hard their lives are now and accusing MIT of being responsible for Scott’s death. For some reason, the basic tenet that individuals should be held responsible for their own actions has become lost in the campus debates with respect to underage drinking. But people should know that actions have consequences and that they are responsible for those. What ever motive for Scott’s drinking is the most reasonable one for you and whether you think that peer pressure was the cause or not; at the end it was his personal decision to swallow his own poison and he has to be held responsible for the consequence: his death.
Sincerely,
