4000 Days comes to Tribeca this week, and everyone should hear with Eric and Linda Oakes have to say about the new film.
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Director Daniel Catullo and the Oakes family joined The Mary Sue to discuss 4000 Days. This emotional documentary chronicles the epidemic of college hazing around the United States. Maybe more importantly, it also shines a light on the families affected.
One of the biggest modern incidents of fraternity hazing is that of Adam Oakes. The young man’s life was cut short by the negligence of the Delta Chi fraternity. After that heartbreaking day, Eric and Linda Oakes have dedicated their lives to making sure people know about the dangers of school hazing.
Speaking to us, Mr. Oakes said, “5 days after Adam [Oakes] died, Stone Fultz died at Bowling Green in Ohio. Bowling Green University. And, then Lofton Hazelwood, and Danny Centulli in the same year.”
“We just went out on the local level, which was the state of Virginia. And, we passed Adam’s Law, we just got together as a family and said, ‘What are things that Adam didn’t have that he needed that night?’”
“So, it was, the in-person hazing-prevention education he didn’t have that night,” Oakes continued. “He didn’t have bystander awareness, you know? He didn’t have somebody really looking after him.”
It’s a hard thing to say goodbye to your son at such a young age. And, to have the strength to explain to other young people and their families that this isn’t some sort of isolated incident. In fact, Numerous other families have had to go through the same heartbreaking events because of Hazing’s prominence on college campuses.
Eric and Linda Oakes share their story in 4000 Days
This family has done so much to help limit these sorts of tragedies. They even walked us through the numerous guidelines that have been installed to help young people in the aftermath of Adam’s passing.
“So, now in Virginia, if you call, even if you’re a part of the hazing of the person, you can be covered in the bystander awareness part of Adam’s Law,” they shared. “Where you won’t get expelled. You won’t get criminal charges pressed against you. And, you won’t have criminal suits either.”
“Just to encourage kid to start doing the right thing. Which is to call for help when you see somebody. And, when we do presentations, we tell them when somebody, there’s, there’s all kinds of different signs of alcohol poisoning, but the, the main one is when somebody’s passed out, you know, that’s not somebody that wants to lay on a dirty, disgusting fraternity floor.”
“Their body is shutting down because the alcohol is taking over,” they told us. “Yeah, so you should immediately need to get that person help because you’re not a doctor or a nurse and you can’t administer help with somebody that’s passed out.”
“All we can do is be there for other families and we passed the laws. We helped get the Stop Campus Hazing Act passed,” the Oakes’ recalled. “So, now all 50 states are covered because there were 6 states that didn’t have any hazing definition.”
(featured image: 10 Lives Studios)
