6. Do not notify parents.
In the event of a serious accident or illness, the medical
personnel will notify parents and advise them of the student's
physical situation. In the event of a death, University officials
will notify parents.
While your members are gathered, there are several things
to be done. It is important that they remain calm until
the situation is under control. Depending upon the situation,
out-of-house members may need to be called in. Discuss
the situation with your Chapter Adviser, Home Office Staff,
or Greek Adviser and formulate statements making sure everyone
understands; your Housemother should also be informed.
If the situation is a death outside the house, do not announce
it until your Chapter Adviser or a University staff member
has arrived to help. Be very careful about this information
as a statement should be released to the University media
office only after all members of the immediate family have
been notified. If the member lived in the house, do
not move any of the deceased student's personal possessions.
Since most of your men share a room, perhaps you will want
to move the roommate somewhere else temporarily. You
should call the family to offer sympathy on behalf of the
Chapter; ask what their wishes are in regards to the possessions.
You may offer to pack them in boxes, but chances are the parents
will prefer to do this themselves. Before they arrive,
be sure that all borrowed items are returned to the deceased's
room and, if possible, lock it. When they do arrive,
you may want to have empty boxes available and offer help.
This is an emotional trauma for parents, and they may not
want to be with any of their son's friends.
It is, of course, proper to send sympathy cards and notes,
flowers, etc. If a funeral is in-state, it will mean
a great deal to parents for some or all of the members to
attend.
In the case of a suicide attempt, with or without serious
injury, do not assemble your members or call parents.
Further steps to take in this instance should be discussed
with the Chapter Adviser and perhaps University personnel
trained in this area.
NOTE: All of this, no doubt, sounds rather
gruesome and harsh. We would like to hope no one will
ever have to use these procedures. Tragedies do occur
and we cannot predict them. What we have, however, is
a procedure to follow to ease the situation for all concerned. |
