Harshbarger warns of drinking dangers

GCSU students received an e-mail Nov. 3, from Vice President for Student Affairs Bruce Harshbarger in regards to an event involving a fellow student. The student exhibited a strange reaction to an alcoholic beverage she consumed at a party.

The student attended an off-campus party in an apartment complex, where a resident of the apartment noticed that the student and others had become impaired immediately after drinking mixed drinks from a large container. The resident also noticed that the student seemed far more intoxicated than what would be expected for the amount of alcohol she had consumed. The student was the only one out of several females who exhibited symptoms after drinking the mixed drinks, and her symptoms have continued since the episode.

“Doctors assume someone drugged the drink. It apparently triggered some chemical problems for her,” Harshbarger said. “She is still under the care of a doctor.”

It is unclear at this time what exactly was in the drink, but Public Safety has been following up on the names of people at the party.

“As far as I understand, they are aware of who might have done it,” Harshbarger said.

Students are advised to watch their drinks at all times and to never drink from a large open container. It may seem distasteful, but students are also urged to carry their drinks with them at all times, even to the bathroom.

“It is literally as easy as dropping something into a glass when someone is not looking,” Harshbarger said.

Students are also warned that it is unwise to have someone retrieve or make a drink for them, especially in a crowded or hectic setting.

“You need to be especially aware if you’re at a large gathering if you don’t know everyone,” Harshbarger said. “It’s one thing about getting food or drink from the primary source but another concern is not setting it down on a table, going across the room to speak to someone then coming back to it.”

Harshbarger sent the mass e-mail to students in the hope that it will advise students to think about what they might be drinking.

“Nobody thinks that they will be the victim,” Harshbarger said. “More importantly, I wanted to get the word out to the students.”

Students, such as sophomore pre-mass communication major Stephanie Reagan, seem to have responded well to Harshbarger’s e-mail and are thankful for the concern.

“I haven’t really heard anything about the incident,” Reagan said. “The only thing I heard is I got an e-mail about students being careful, which I thought was really good that he was addressing the problem.”

Still others, such as sophomore chemistry major Deandre Beck, seem to have taken Harshbarger’s wisdom to heart and see the incident as an example to learn by.

“It’s a travesty. I really feel for her,” Beck said. “I know someone that’s had that happen to them, and they had a full football scholarship and they lost it. So I can definitely have sympathy for her. I guess this will serve as a lesson to students to watch what they drink, be responsible (and) watch the person make their drink.”

Editor’s note: Stephanie Reagan is a reporter for The Colonnade.

Posted by Hilary Thompson on Nov 18 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.