Hours after Wilberforce University freshman Savanna Jones texted her friends that she was “lowkey scared” to join an underground social club, a picture of her passed out on a bed began circulating across the campus. On April 29, the 18-year-old was set to join the Turtles, which she described in text messages to her friends as an underground drinking organization. That evening, Jones and at least 10 students crowded in a dorm room on the private, historically Black university’s campus. The school has a no-alcohol policy, but when Jones entered the room, bottles of alcohol were already there, her family alleges.What happened next is at the center of a dispute now playing out in the Ohio legal system. This much is known: Sometime in the early hours of April 30, Jones passed away in her dorm room, alone and severely intoxicated. “Savanna was so out of it, she had to be carried back to her dorm room,” said Spencer Meador, an attorney with Cooper Elliott, the Ohio-based law firm representing the family. “Where were the resident assistants? Where was campus security? Where were the students? Why didn’t they call 911? Why didn’t someone help her?”Jones’ death is the latest in a series of high-profile alleged hazing cases. In recent years, colleges, fraternities, and marching bands have been investigated after hazing incidents led to deaths or severe injuries.
