FARGO, N.D – On December 24, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act, which was co-sponsored by Senator Amy Klobuchar.
On October 19th, 2021. Danny Santulli was a freshman at the University of Missouri who pledged to the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity.
“It was the pledge dad’s reveal night. Danny’s mother, Mary Santulli, stated that the pledge dad at the time handed Danny a bottle of Tito’s.
Danny and the other pledges were told that they needed to finish a bottle of liquor. They then went upstairs, and Danny was given beer through a funnel. “they threw him on the couch, literally just threw him on his back and he was pretty much just left there the rest of the night,” said Mary Santulli, a witness.
Members of the fraternity then discovered Danny was not breathing. They then picked him up and transported him to the emergency room.
“When he got to the ER, he was in cardiac arrest,” said Mary Santulli.
Danny suffered severe brain damage, losing his ability to walk, talk, and see. “At that point, it was a nightmare. I simply couldn’t believe what was happening. “It’s been a long and difficult journey for us,” Mary Santulli explained.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act, signed into law on December 24th, aims to end hazing on college campuses across the country. The law requires universities to report hazing incidents in their annual safety reports.
“Universities must come clean now. “Now they have to publish incidents and so on,” said Danny’s father, Tom Santulli.
The Santullis stated that they have met many parents across the country who have lost their children to hazing, and that they were instrumental in getting this law passed.
“Our next step is for Danny’s law, which is expected to pass in 2025. Basically, if someone is in distress and someone calls 911, you are immune. “You receive immunity from the hazing felony,” said Tom Santulli.
The University of Missouri’s Phi Gamma Delta chapter was shut down shortly after Danny’s incident.