The parents of a Bowling Green State University student who died after he was forced to down 40 shots in a hazing ritual say their son was ‘murdered’ as they call for his fraternity brothers to face felony charges.
‘To me he was forced into something, the outcome is he was murdered,’ Shari Foltz said of her son, Stone Foltz, 20, in an interview with Good Morning America on Wednesday.
‘There needs to be harsher punishments,’ she said. ‘You get a slap on the hand for basically doing these things and killing someone. If it’s a felony, don’t you think they’re going to think twice before doing something like this?’
Foltz died on March 7 after the sophomore business major was allegedly forced into a drinking ritual while pledging Pi Kappa Alpha’s Delta Beta chapter at Bowling Green State University. Pi Kappa Alpha has since placed the Bowling Green State chapter on administrative suspension.
Incredibly, Shari says she was able to forgive the students who she holds responsible for her son’s death, but demands they face justice.
‘I forgive them,’ said Shari, who described the pain of Stone’s loss as ‘unimaginable’. ‘But I won’t forget.’
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The parents of a Bowling Green State University student who died after he was forced to down 40 shots in a hazing ritual say their son was ‘murdered’ as they call for his fraternity brothers to face felony charges. ‘No parent should have to sit in their car wondering if their son is going to be okay,’ his father Cory said
Stone Foltz was a sophomore business major at Bowling Green State University
The family’s lawyer Rex Elliott added that justice for grieving parents, ‘looks like the criminal process. Those involved in this ritual, charged with crimes.’
‘I want them to step up,’ Shari said of the fraternity. ‘I want them to take ownership, I want them to explain what went on – I think that’s gonna help put a stop to this.’
Shari explained that she’d had some concerns when Stone decided he wanted to pledge Greek life.
‘We had many conversations as to, ‘Make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons, make sure you’re checking these fraternities out,’ Shari said.
Sadly those fears appear to have been well founded after Shari and her husband Corey received a call at midnight on March 4, telling them their son was unconscious.
‘He was found not breathing, they had to revive him and [was] on a ventilator keeping him alive,’ said father Cory who immediately drove the two hours to the school from their home.
‘So we spent two hours, driving to his school, holding my wife’s hand, praying in my mind that Stone was going to be okay. No parent should have to sit in their car wondering if their son is going to be okay.’
After four nights in the hospital, however, Stone was declared brain dead.
‘I can’t describe the pain – there’s a piece of my heart that’s gone. It’s just unimaginable, I can’t even explain to you,; said Shari.
Stone (left) with mother Shari and father Cory. Stone died after an alleged hazing incident
‘There needs to be harsher punishments,’ mother Shari said about hazing incidents
‘He was an amazing kid, just an absolute, loving kid’.
Two weeks before his death, Stone declined to return home for a weekend because the fraternity was forcing him to stay at the school until 2am one night.
On March 4, Stone relayed to his mother that there was a drinking ritual he felt he was being forced to take part in.
Shari texted her son about it and promised to call and check in an hour after the ritual began, but she ‘never made that call.’
An anonymous student told WTOL, ‘We have to drink a handle of any alcohol that our big gives us. We have to finish the whole thing in the time we’re there before we leave.’
A handle of alcohol contains about 40 shots of liquor.
‘I’ve never seen my roommate more drunk in his entire life. He immediately went to the bathroom and was throwing up in the toilet for just 15 minutes to an hour and making himself vomit,’ the student continued.
Shari said, ”Well, that sounds really stupid. Why do you have to do it?” And he said ‘It’s just part of the ritual, I have to, but I don’t want to.”
A Bowling Green States spokesperson referred to the incident as an ‘alleged hazing activity involving alcohol consumption at a Pi Kappa Alpha off-campus event’ on March 5.
The parents of Stone Foltz allowed his organs to be donated following his death
Pictured: Bowling Green’s Pi Kappa Alpha house. The chapter is on administrative suspension
Shari says that she holds the national fraternity organization ‘100 percent’ responsible for the incident.
Pi Kappa Alpha, which placed the Bowling Green State chapter on administrative suspension, issued a statement after Stone Foltz’s death.
‘The Fraternity has a zero-tolerance policy toward illegal activity, substance abuse, bullying, and hazing of any kind. As more details are confirmed, we will also pursue permanent suspension of Delta Beta Chapter as well as expulsion of all chapter members from the International Fraternity.
‘The International Fraternity will cooperate fully with authorities as this incident is investigated and will consider every possible course of action to hold the chapter and individual members accountable to the fullest extent in accordance with the International Fraternity Constitution and Codes.’
Stone’s organs are being donated to others, with his heart and kidneys already successfully transplanted.
Meanwhile, The Columbus Dispatch reports that lawmakers in Ohio, where Bowling Green State is located, are eyeing new anti-hazing legislation.
A new version of Collin’s Law would increase penalties of hazing from misdemeanors to felonies.
The bill is named for Collin Wiant, a freshman at Ohio University who died in 2018 at a fraternity house after he inhaled a whippit.
