FARGO, N.D. (KVLY/Gray News) – A family in Minnesota is praising new federal legislation that aims to prevent hazing at universities after their son was permanently impaired from an incident on his campus.
Danny Santulli was a freshman at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2021. On Oct. 19 of that year, he was pledging to the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity.
Mary Santulli, Danny’s mother, said it was pledge dad reveal night.
“The pledge dad at that time handed Danny a bottle of Tito’s,” she said.
Danny Santulli was told he had to finish a whole bottle of liquor, along with the other pledges that night.
His mother said they proceeded upstairs where he was given beer through a funnel.
“They threw him on the couch, literally just threw him on his back, and he was pretty much just left there the rest of the night,” she said.
Members of the fraternity then found Danny Santulli not breathing and took him to the emergency room.
“Once he got to the emergency room, he was in cardiac arrest,” Mary Santulli said.
Danny Santulli suffered severe brain damage and lost his ability to walk, talk and see, his parents said.
“You know, at that point, it was a complete nightmare,” Mary Santulli said. “I just couldn’t believe what was happening. It’s been a very difficult long journey for us.”
On Christmas Eve, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act into law. The legislation was co-led by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
The new law requires universities to include hazing incidents in their annual safety report.
“Universities have to come clean now. Now they have to publish incidents and so forth,” Danny’s father, Tom Santulli, said.
The Santullis said they have met many parents across the country who have lost their child to hazing. They said these other families were key to getting this law across the finish line.
“Our next step is for Danny’s Law that should pass in 2025,” Tom Santulli said. “Basically if someone is in distress and so forth someone calls 911 you get immunity. You get immunity from the hazing felony.”
The Phi Gamma Delta at the University of Missouri was shut down shortly after Danny’s incident.
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