Reflection C - Unintended Consequences

Please read the following two (2) short article excerpts and write a reflection based on the prompts that follow.

Former student sentenced in fraternity brother’s death

CLEVELAND (AP) – A former Baldwin-Wallace College student was sentenced to three years in prison for striking a fraternity brother who fell into a coma and died 18 days after they fought inside a dormitory.

Adam Gaydos said in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Thursday that he was “truly sorry” for causing the death of Brent Jones in what authorities described as a drunken rage.

“We don’t care to hear your apologies today, Mr. Gaydos,” responded Jones’ mother, Janet.

Gaydos had been drinking the night of Jan. 16, 2005, when he punched fellow Sigma Phi Epsilon member Brent Jones, who hit his head on a door frame, causing brain damage, authorities said.

Jones, a 21-year-old senior from Mount Vernon who studied biology and wanted to be a veterinarian, never awoke from the coma.

Gaydos, 21, of Mentor, was originally charged with murder. He pleaded guilty in March to involuntary manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to petition the court for an early release after serving two years.

Prosecutors said the fight was over Gaydos’ treatment of a girl.

Gaydos, Jones, Jones’ girlfriend and her underage cousin all had been out drinking that night. Jones’ girlfriend later told police she saw Gaydos trying to take advantage of her cousin.

Jones confronted Gaydos, and the two scuffled in Gaydos’ room. Minutes later, Gaydos went after Jones in a hallway.

Baldwin-Wallace College is in Berea, about 15 miles southwest of Cleveland.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

One Punch, One Death, 3 years

A life lost, another ruined. We have followed this story from the first and it does not get any easier.

Brent Jones was smaller and less athletic than Adam Gaydos.

But when Jones, 21, a student at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, heard his fraternity brother was trying to take sexual advantage of an inebriated girl on Jan. 16, 2005, Jones asked Gaydos to stop.

“Brent came to the aid and honor of his guests that weekend,” Assistant Cuyahoga Prosecutor Rick Bombik said. “He ended up getting punched in the nose (by Gaydos), and that should have been the end of it.”

Tragically, it wasn’t. Twenty minutes later, Gaydos – a 21-year-old former Mentor resident and former standout athlete at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills – started a second confrontation with Jones, a biology student who was engaged to be married.

“(Gaydos) hit (Jones),” Bombik said. “One of the victims (sic) described it as one of the hardest punches he’d ever seen.” After the Mount Vernon native was whacked once in the left side of the face in the hallway of the dormitory, the back of his head hit a cinderblock wall.

Jones was rushed to MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, but died two weeks later from brain injuries.

On Thursday, Gaydos was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty last month to involuntary manslaughter.

“All Brent was trying to do was keep (Gaydos) from raping someone,” said the victim’s grandmother, Barbara Wagner, after the hearing.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Please submit a 2-page reflection paper to studentconduct@jcu.edu  considering the following questions:

• Who or what influenced your decision?
• Who was impacted by your decision?
• Is your behavior indicative of the person you are trying to become?
• A choice to engage in acts like a fight can have unpredictable, long-reaching consequences. As the articles you read mentioned, emotion plays a large role in decision-making. What are some specific, concrete and realistic strategies you can employ to ensure a fleeting emotion does not drive a choice that could have long-reaching and permanent consequences?