NO ONE TO BLAME

I was disgusted to read your article "Student death raises questions",
Jan. 10. The death of a young member of our UCF family is truly a
tragedy and no person can ever imagine the pain that must be felt by
Yancy family.

However I was taken when reading your article by a significant
dichotomy of facts that place the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity
unfortunately in the middle of unsubstantiated inference. Factually,
on Nov. 14, 2004, your article reports that John Yancy was arrested
for possession of cocaine and prescription drug medication and that
police found a wide plethora of drugs and paraphernalia when they
entered Mr. Yancy's home after his death. It would seem to any able
reader that Mrs. Yancy's claims that "her son had never done drugs
before college" are nothing more than a naivety or unwillingness to
address her sons problems. Speculatively, the Yancy family is
seemingly displacing its grief in an unwarranted direction towards the
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Over the past years of reading the Central
Florida Future I have read many positive accounts as well as many
negative accounts to Greek Life at UCF, however it is appalling to
suggest that a group of students 18-22, who have undoubtedly lost a
close friend, are the reason for his actions. John Yancy chose to
associate with Pi Kappa Alpha and correctly we can assume its members
are his friends and he is theirs. John Yancy was not only a member of
the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, but a student at UCF as well, yet Mrs.
Yancy does not blame UCF for her son's drug involvement, the place
where in her words he first became a user.

Fraternities are the easy target but not the correct answer; our
entire community, students, faculty, staff, and parents must address
the issue of drugs at the University and find away to ensure that no
other student enters a place so dark that he/she sees the only
solution as taking their own life. Suicide is a permanent solution to
a temporary problem. It is evident that Mrs. Yancy's claims are
unwarranted and that she simply wants to push aside the extent to
which her son seemingly was involved in illicit drugs to displace her
grief.

At a time like this it is reprehensible to place blame of an
inflammatory nature like this on anyone. I think your paper showed a
disgusting lack of resolve by publishing this tabloid-esque byline to
an important story. I urge you to report the facts and investigate the
reality, not misplaced devastation.

Oren Falkowitz,

Former Pi kappa alpha president 2003-04