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Published: 2012-10-01 17:34:00
Updated: 2012-10-01 18:09:03

Raleigh woman sues ECU sorority over daughter's death


Victoria T'nya-Ann Carter
Victoria T'nya-Ann Carter
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The mother of an East Carolina University student who died in a crash almost two years ago filed a wrongful death suit Monday against a sorority at the school, claiming that hazing led to the fatal wreck.

Victoria T'nya-Ann Carter, 20, of Raleigh, was one of two ECU students killed on Nov. 20, 2010, when the car they were riding in went off a road in Greenville and hit a tree.

The driver, Kamil Shaunay Arrington, of Nashville, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor death by vehicle in the crash.

Arrington, Carter and two other passengers in the car were members of the pledge class for Delta Sigma Theta at ECU.

A lawsuit filed in Nash County by Carter's mother, Bernadette Carter, alleges that the sorority hazed the pledges in multiple ways, including depriving them of sleep. The hazing violated ECU policies, but sorority officials dismissed any complaints university officials received, according to the suit.

Arrington was so exhausted after weeks of hazing that she fell asleep while driving Carter and their classmates to an early-morning sorority appointment, the suit states.

The sorority later tried to cover up the hazing by deleting emails, text message records and other documents and threatening pledges, according to the lawsuit.

The suit, which also names the national Delta Sigma Theta sorority and more than two dozen members of the ECU chapter, is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.


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No one forced this smart intelligent hard working rich girl to drive a car. She made that decision herself. She should have been smart enough to know that she should not be driving. The college and sorority should be sueing the mother for sending them someone who wasnt capable of thinking for herself.

I was in a fraternity for a couple of years in college. We did not haze pledges. We were a social fraternity as well. The main reason I joined that fraternity was because of the no hazing. We weren't the most "popular" but were the 3rd biggest, in great academic standing, and at the top in athletic intramurals as well. We have guys from Eastern NC, the northeast, mountain towns, big cities, small towns. Definitely NOT the worst thing about college.

Actually the worst thing about college is the societal lie that if you $pend thou$ands you will be ahead of so many others in the working world.

Fraternities and sororities - how are these fake friend factories accepted by our society? Most in them are brainless bullies that feel better when they torture someone else - so, basically, losers!

Completely disgusting and the worst thing about college!

What a loss. In the end, what purpose was trying to fit in. There are better ways to fit in and make a lasting impression on society.

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