Son of state lawmaker charged with manslaughter in student death
Associated Press
MURRAY, Ky. - The son of a state lawmaker has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a Murray State University graduate student, police said.
Police arrested 20-year-old Harrison Yonts on Friday and charged him with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Nadia Shaheen, who was 63.
Shaheen was struck and killed by a car on a roadside early Friday morning, Calloway Coroner Mike Garland said.
Yonts is a sophomore at Murray State and a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, the university's student newspaper reported Friday.
Shaheen's body was found in a ditch on Coldwater Road Friday at 6:30 a.m. CST. Police used evidence from the crime scene and linked it to Yonts' vehicle, according to a statement from Murray police.
Shaheen died of blunt force trauma to the head, Garland said. She was pronounced dead at 7:20 a.m. Friday morning. Garland said she was likely struck from four to six hours before that.
Murray police said they believe Shaheen was walking home from the university's Curris Center when she was struck.
Dann Patterson, adviser of the Murray State chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, told The Paducah Sun that Yonts had stopped by a fraternity party briefly Thursday night.
Patterson said Yonts' father, Rep. Brent Yonts of Greenville, was at the fraternity house Friday afternoon to speak with members and try to find out more of what happened.
Harrison Yonts was in the Calloway County Jail Friday night on a $500,000 bond.
Shaheen, a native of Egypt, was to graduate in December 2005 in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program.
Mark Galloway, an international student adviser at the university, told the Murray State University newspaper that Shaheen was well-liked among the students.
"She just made a big meal for the students in her class Wednesday," Galloway said. "She cooked for just about everybody. She loved doing that."
Officials at the Lambda Chi Alpha headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind., suspended all activity for the campus chapter.
Not really surprising, given the glorification of alcoholism on college campuses. It's particularly bad at UGA and the one thing I really hate about this school. Worse, this irresponsible twat will probably get a wrist-slap for his irresponsibility.
But, who am I to judge? After all, "I like to get FUCKED UP ON FRIDAY NIGHT" clearly outweighs "I want to not die" in our society.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
I will always support the concept of FLOGGING drunk drivers. 80 for DUI. 800 and death if you kill someone will drunk and driving.
"The real ideological schism in America is not Republican vs Democrat; it is North vs South, Urban vs Rural, and it has been since the 19th century."
-Mike Wong
Why the HELL don't they just kick the fraternities off campus already? They're a menace.
But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Rouge - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, I'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Good day, sir!
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
This instance aside, fraternities serve no academic purpose whatsoever and quite frankly you can do all the things you get from a fraternity without having to drop thousands of dollars a year (well, except for getting the shadowy social connections). All they do is suck up school resources, including primo real estate that could save the University if utilized better, and drink. They obviously shouldn't be banned, but they are merely social clubs and nothing more, with the exception of academic fraternities that actually serve a purpose. They should be recognized as such by universities and treated accordingly.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Why the HELL don't they just kick the fraternities off campus already? They're a menace.
But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Rogue - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, I'm not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Good day, sir!
That's ridiculous and you know it. The fraternities are responsible for what goes on at their functions. They let illegal drugs into the party, let an underage child drink alcohol, and they let him drive away afterwards. This isn't the first time, either; it's just the worst that's come of many such instances. The fraternities are directly culpable here; the whole of American society is not. And as the social fraternity system is needlessly destructive while serving no discernible constructive purpose, I fail to see why they should be allowed to continue wrecking this campus. They have consistently broken the rules this semester; other schools have removed fraternities entirely for less than this. Tennessee State at Knoxville, for instance, booted out a fraternity a couple years ago because of some of their members' choices in Halloween costume; here, someone actually died. There is more than enough grounds here. The fraternity was already on probation for the drinking at the conference anyway.
That's ridiculous and you know it. The fraternities are responsible for what goes on at their functions. They let illegal drugs into the party, let an underage child drink alcohol, and they let him drive away afterwards. This isn't the first time, either; it's just the worst that's come of many such instances. The fraternities are directly culpable here; the whole of American society is not. And as the social fraternity system is needlessly destructive while serving no discernible constructive purpose, I fail to see why they should be allowed to continue wrecking this campus.
The hits just never stop.
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
Clearly, Rogue isn't watching the Classics when it comes to college movies.
"Show me an angel and I will paint you one." - Gustav Courbet
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"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
I'm so happy my college isn't on the greek system.
WE, however, do meddle in the affairs of others.
What part of [ ,, N() ] don't you understand?
Skeptical Armada Cynic: ROU Aggressive Logic
SDN Ranger: Skeptical Ambassador EOD
Mr Golgotha, Ms Scheck, we're running low on skin. I suggest you harvest another lesbian!
I frankly fail to see the point of fraternities. Recently the area around my school has had a rather scary increase in the number of rapes. You know who was involved in a vast majority of the rapes? Frat brothers. But actually go so far as to mention this and shit starts flying. A friend of mine wrote an editorial about it in the school paper (mostly ripping into the "few bad apples" excuse, since almost all the rapists were frat brothers), and the flak got so bad he resigned from the staff.
As far as I have been able to see, the response to these incidents has been a few posters telling guys not to commit rape and an increased PR campaign from the frats to try to put up a better image. One of the frat posters had a picture of some famous people on it who were in frats, apparently to put up the illusion that being in a frat will make you rich and famous. Of course, I actually took the time to read one of these, and the people consisted of a couple politicians (including Howard Dean), a country singer, Cheech Marin (who of course based his entire acting career around the concept of drug abuse), some guy who was on "The Real World", Ron Jeremy, and Dave Thomas.
Frankly, the most upstanding citizen of the bunch was probably Dave Thomas. But, of course, Dave Thomas was also a Freemason, so I guess just because Dave Thomas did something doesn't necessarily make it a good idea.
Lighten up. I made a joke and Rogue 9 couldn't stop himself from making a self-righteous rant. Have some humor with your indignation.
Okay, let me explain this in small words so that you'll understand. One of my classmates is dead. Fuck off.
Its a quote from "Animal House". He might not even disagree with you. I know I am not exactly a figure of authority in any context whatsoever but I think Hemlock should have just put quotations marks on his quotations and then perhaps the situation might have been more clear. Then again, he had no idea you were emotionally involved in the issue. I am sure he meant to offence and I am sure if you just take one step back, breath and nod politely to each other there need not be a flame war/ feeling of bad blood.
"Yeah, funny how that works - you giving hungry people food they vote for you. You give homeless people shelter they vote for you. You give the unemployed a job they vote for you.
Maybe if the conservative ideology put a roof overhead, food on the table, and employed the downtrodden the poor folk would be all for it, too". - Broomstick
I'm inclined to agree with Rogue 9 on this thread. I've always found the fraternity system to be one of the more bizarre and disturbing aspects of our higher-education system, and as we can see in this incident, it's an aspect that can cause real damage.
"Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a better computer."
I know I should have said this last time, but can anyone actually define for me what a fraternity really is. I mean, I've seen Animal House and I get vague ideas but is it like a college in a different country? Or is it more like a boarding house at a school? Is a location or a special club? Is it a cult?
"Yeah, funny how that works - you giving hungry people food they vote for you. You give homeless people shelter they vote for you. You give the unemployed a job they vote for you.
Maybe if the conservative ideology put a roof overhead, food on the table, and employed the downtrodden the poor folk would be all for it, too". - Broomstick
If I might expand on my previous comment, the big challenge here is going to be to organize political support for a ban on fraternities. The problem is these fraternities have buttloads of loyal, powerful alumni. So it's going to be an uphill battle, however, incidents like this may serve to crystalize opposition to these horrific anachronisms in the higher education system.
"Here's a nickel, kid. Get yourself a better computer."
The Guid wrote:I know I should have said this last time, but can anyone actually define for me what a fraternity really is. I mean, I've seen Animal House and I get vague ideas but is it like a college in a different country? Or is it more like a boarding house at a school? Is a location or a special club? Is it a cult?
Depends on the fraternity. There are social fraternities, which is what we're discussing here, and then there are professional and academic fraternities, which are far less of a problem and in most cases are largely beneficial.
A social fraternity/sorority basically exists for the brothers/sisters (respectively) to party with. It's a throwback to traditions of ancient Greece. While it is traditionally associated with Athens, fraternities actually originated in Sparta, where the brothers were military men away from the women who would engage in homosexual sex and use their positions to help each other along through the military chain of command, and later to set up brothers in civilian life after their terms were up. (Frat boys now get really uncomfortable when this origin is revealed.) Now, of course, the organizations have nothing to do with their martial past, and just party it up every weekend. They have philanthropic events to try and act like they're interested in working for the public good, but it's just an exercise in justifying their own existence.
The Guid wrote:I know I should have said this last time, but can anyone actually define for me what a fraternity really is. I mean, I've seen Animal House and I get vague ideas but is it like a college in a different country? Or is it more like a boarding house at a school? Is a location or a special club? Is it a cult?
A fraternity (or sorority, for females) is basically an organization of college students that uses the Greek lettering system. There are different types - academic, professional, service, and honorary fraternities are a good thing and serve a real purpose. Social fraternities, the kind most often seen in popular media, are the ones you are probably the most familiar with, and the most common. Like I said, they're social clubs for college students; during what we call "rush week" on US campuses, students (usually freshmen) visit various fraternities or sororities to see which ones they want to join. They eventually get bids to pledge to the fraternity, and when they do they usually have to go through some rather brutal hazing (on many campuses it is banned, but such bans are usually a pathetic joke) to be fully initiated as members. After that, the initiated members usually move into the fraternity house for a couple of their college years. They're basically social clubs, like I said - they party even more than most college students and consume tons of alcohol. They don't serve much purpose on campus and there really is no reason for the school to recognize them as anything other than independent social clubs.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
At my university, we didn't have any prominent fraternities, and none with on-campus lodgings. Of course, we also didn't obsess over our sports team or pay the sports coaches far more money than the best-paid academic professors, nor did female students aspire to the cheerleading team as if it was a great honour. In fact, the football team was lucky to get anybody to watch their games besides their immediate friends and family, and the handful of off-campus fraternities had to run around asking guys in my class if we wanted to join. Most of us said no.
Of course, we actually considered ourselves a place of learning, rather than sports and drinking. Strange priorities we Canadians have, eh?
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
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So its possible to not join any one of them and still be part of the University? Is it still possible to get accomadation on campus if one is not part of them? I'm just trying to get a picture in my head. Thanks for the help.
"Yeah, funny how that works - you giving hungry people food they vote for you. You give homeless people shelter they vote for you. You give the unemployed a job they vote for you.
Maybe if the conservative ideology put a roof overhead, food on the table, and employed the downtrodden the poor folk would be all for it, too". - Broomstick
The Guid wrote:So its possible to not join any one of them and still be part of the University? Is it still possible to get accomadation on campus if one is not part of them? I'm just trying to get a picture in my head. Thanks for the help.
Oh yes, very possible. I'm not in a fraternity; there are a lot of students who aren't. In fact, the frats have to pay rent for their fraternity houses, and quite often have to have emergency fundraisers under threat of foreclosure.
The hits just never stop.
,
, N(
