The Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently agreed to a $6 million settlement in order to avoid litigation over a freshman’s death by alcohol poisoning during a fraternity hazing ritual. Scott Krueger was an 18-year old freshman pledge who drank himself unconscious at an “Animal House Contest” event that was part of the initiation ritual to join the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at MIT; Scott was admitted to a local hospital with a 0.4 blood alcohol level, and died three days later. To avoid being named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Scott’s parents, MIT agreed to pay the student’s surviving family $4.75 million, and spend another $1.25 million to establish a scholarship in his name. Although MIT settled, the family is proceeding with its wrongful death lawsuit against the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Moreover, the MIT chapter of the fraternity was indicted by a local grand jury for hazing and manslaughter; however, no one was ever arraigned because the
