Parents of University of Kentucky student who died at fraternity house speak out l GMA

Want to turn down to a family demanding answer saying that the alcohol overdose that killed their son last year was due to fraternity hazing they’re speaking out about the tragedy now for the first time on gma or will reeve spoke to them well good morning to you hey t.j good

Morning with the exception of 2020 when many colleges were attended remotely in the throes of the pandemic there’s been at least one reported hazing death at a school club or organization every year for 60 years the hazelwood family believes their son lofton was one of those victims lofton hazelwood went to the university

Of kentucky to carry on the hazelwood family tradition kirk and tracy’s youngest followed his three older sisters there he loved hunting and fishing and all that stuff but he was kind of our preppy boy too just months into his freshman year lofton was found unresponsive in his fraternity house and

Rushed to the hospital where the 18 year old died from an alcohol overdose his sister preston a sophomore was by his side they were trying to revive him and everything and they told me that he didn’t make it how did the next few hours go for your family it felt like

Days went by before my parents could get to me because they were a nightmare they were three hours away and i was by myself we had to pull over about 30 minutes down the road is when they told us and that it was hard we had another three hours to go

It’s not anything you want for anybody it’s horrible the school’s investigation finding lofton consumed 18 shots of bourbon in just 45 minutes during a fraternity pledge event according to the toxicology report his blood alcohol content was a lethal .354 what were you told had happened

We were told that he showed up at the frat house that day totally stoned sober and one person said they passed the bottle around another person said that they were pouring drinking out of cups solo cups one of the guys said that he could barely walk they had to practically carry him down

And put him in a room and they said they were going to check on him but they left him the school also found that the farmhouse fraternity had engaged in hazing activities but the investigation concluded the pledges were not coerced to drink alcohol the day lofton died his first day

He sent us a picture of his bed card and he told us that he had to drink this drink called a four loco it’s like a tall boy drink and it’s really strong alcohol wise he called me one night and he said you know i got a big test tomorrow

I’m supposed to be there i don’t feel like drinking tonight and i said do you have to and he said mom it’s like this you don’t have to but you do do you believe that your son was hazed yes yes 100 the university of kentucky suspended farmhouse fraternity for at least four

Years and the national chapter revoked the group’s charter and while the police investigation is not yet complete authorities don’t believe any criminal charges will be filed there’s a lot of responsibility to go around in this situation but the farmhouse national fraternity certainly has responsibility the local chapter i mean

This occurred at the local fraternity house with the local officers knowing about it in a statement farmhouse fraternity told abc news in part that their investigation did not find that hazing played a role into lofton’s death but did find a number of other violations in the new member process of that kentucky

Chapter which did not adhere to farmhouse’s values and code of conduct the hazelwoods told me they intend on filing a lawsuit in the future and they founded the lofton hazelwood foundation to stop fraternity hazing and alcohol abuse so that no family loses a child like they did tj and maybe some good can

Come out of all of this all right well thank you so much well hey there gma fans robin roberts here thanks for checking out our youtube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click the subscribe button right over right over here to get more of awesome

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