The parents of a University of Texas, Austin student who took his own life filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a fraternity he was pledging at the time and accused its members of subjecting their son to \u201chorrific\u201d and violent hazing that pushed him into a \u201cpsychological crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sawyer Lee Updike, 18, died by suicide in January 2024 when he was still just a freshman going through what his parents say was an arduous pledging process for the university\u2019s Sigma Chi fraternity chapter.<\/p>\n
Sawyer Lee Updike, 18, died by suicide in January 2024. Court Documents<\/p>\n
His parents, Sheryl Roberts-Updike and Lee J. Updike, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Sigma Chi fraternity\u2019s Alpha Nu chapter \u2014 as well as five members accused of hazing their son and the fraternity\u2019s national headquarters \u2014 on Nov. 20, according to a news release.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit described the \u201cmonths-long hazing process\u201d Sawyer was allegedly forced to complete for full membership with Sigma Chi, which he started pledging in the fall of 2023. <\/p>\n
Sawyer was allegedly subjected to repeated physical injuries ranging from being pierced with a staple gun, burnt by lit cigarettes, and getting caught on a fishhook at an alcohol-related event, according to the release.<\/p>\n
During pledging, the suit claims he was introduced to \u201cillegal drugs which led to a psychological crisis that ended in suicide,\u201d including cocaine.<\/p>\n
Sawyer\u2019s parents alleged that the fraternity he was pledging hazed him. Court Documents<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims the fraternity and its brothers played a role in driving the teen to suicide. Court Documents<\/p>\n
The filing also alleges that older members of the fraternity threatened to sexually assault Sawyer\u2019s girlfriend if he did not comply with the hazing. <\/p>\n
Sawyer\u2019s extensive physical and mental anguish all culminated during the second semester of his freshman year, where the lawsuit claims he \u201cwas given cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms\u201d at the fraternity house on January 16, 2024. <\/p>\n
That same day, he drove to a nearby convenience store and took his own life in the parking lot, according to the release.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit lists various injuries Sawyer suffered during the alleged hazing, including burns from lit cigarettes. Court Documents<\/p>\n
\u201cNo parent should ever lose a child, and certainly not because of hazing disguised as \u2018brotherhood\u2019. What happened to Sawyer was cruel, senseless, and preventable. It is unbearable to know that a young man with so much promise was put through something so dangerous in the name of belonging,\u201d Sawyer\u2019s mother, Sheryl, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Hazing is illegal in Texas and is also prohibited under most institutions\u2019 academic code. Sigma Chi International Fraternity ordered the Alpha Nu chapter, known then as only Sigma Chi, to close in 2025 following an investigation into Sawyer\u2019s suicide, according to the UT Austin hazing website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The chapter, however, continued operations under its new name \u201cAlpha Nu\u201d and scrubbed any apparent affiliation with Sigma Chi. Last Thursday, officials with UT Austin delivered a cease and desist letter and ordered it to \u201ccease all organizational activities,\u201d The Daily Texan<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n The Post reached out to the Sigma Chi International Fraternity and the University of Texas, Austin for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The parents of a University of Texas, Austin student who took his own life filed a wrongful death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,863,33340,30489,1932,977,15899,27,734],"class_list":{"0":"post-63818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-colleges-and-universities","12":"tag-fraternity","13":"tag-hazing","14":"tag-lawsuit","15":"tag-student","16":"tag-suicide","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}