ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602260059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
IN THE AFTERMATH OF VALERIE COLE'S DEATH, the 18-year-old's parents are speaking out about the dangers of alcohol, the importance of education and the power of peer pressure.
Diane and John Cole warned their 18-year-old daughter, Valerie, about the dangers of alcohol from the onset of her teen years. They told her not to drink, because she could end up in a car accident. They told her alcohol could lead to rape.
Whenever Valerie left her parents' Manassas home for an evening out, she was given "our little spiel": no sex, no drugs, no drinking, Diane Cole says. The message never changed, even when Valerie left home in the fall for her first year at Radford University.
"We focused on drunk driving, we focused on drugs, we focused on sex and AIDS and all these other things that could kill," John Cole says. "We never really focused [on the fact that] alcohol can kill."
The Coles now know firsthand what alcohol can do. After a night of drinking at two fraternity parties, Valerie was found dead in her dormitory room Feb.10. An autopsy showed she had died from acute alcohol poisoning; her blood-alcohol level was 0.31.
Valerie was the first Radford University student to die from alcohol poisoning in the school's history, though such deaths have occurred on other college campuses, including Virginia Tech in 1991.
The Coles believe this could have happened on any campus at any party, which is why they want the public to remember their daughter.
"I would like for her death to stand for some good in the future and change the lives of some other young people," Diane Cole says.
It begins early
Like her parents, Valerie was active in the St. Thomas United Methodist Church in Manassas, where she sang in the choir.
She was in the honors program at Radford University, and friends described her as the kind of person who earned high grades without even trying.
Drinking alcohol was strictly prohibited in the Cole house. Valerie and her older sister, Shana, now 22, were told they could not drink until they turned 21, John Cole says.
But like many teens, Valerie began drinking when she was in high school. Diane Cole never saw her daughter drunk. But Valerie was honest about her activities, telling her mother about the beer at high school parties.
"She told me she didn't like [beer]," Diane Cole says. "We always felt peer pressure played a big part. As smart as she was, she got sucked into peer pressure."
When Valerie left for college, the Coles gave her one additional warning: to avoid walking alone on campus at night. Then, they had to trust their daughter.
"We knew she was going to parties, and I guess [drinking] goes hand in hand at the parties," Diane Cole says. "I wasn't there to oversee the behavior. It was up to her."
The call from a university administrator came Feb. 10 - a Saturday. Since then, life has virtually stopped at the Cole home.
John Cole has not returned to his engineering job at LORAL Federal Systems in Gaithersburg, Md. Diane Cole has ceased her volunteer work with the local school system and the church. Shana, the Coles' only other child, dropped her spring semester classes at Old Dominion University to return home.
"It's very hard; it's the hardest thing we'll ever go through in our lives," Diane Cole says. "We have to redefine our lives at this point and go on with a different life."
A shock to the system
The fact that college students drink is nothing new. Surveys at Radford University, which parallel those on state and national levels, show that the majority of students drink.
And a 1994 campus study revealed that 42 percent of the students surveyed participated in "binge drinking," defined as five or more drinks in one sitting. Health experts say alcohol poisoning, in which the central nervous system can slow to the point that a person stops breathing, occurs more often when someone binge drinks.
In 1995, Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital alone treated 104 people with alcohol poisoning; that number does not include alcohol-related injuries. Radford Community Hospital does not keep specific figures on alcohol poisoning.
Many of the alcohol-poisoning cases have been students, says Alan Vierling, a nurse and assistant emergency room director at Montgomery Regional.
"You don't see a whole lot of people who are generally big drinkers and then have a big burst," he says. "They decide, `This is it, I'm going for it.'''
Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include erratic breathing, uncontrolled vomiting, changes in mental state, dehydration and unconsciousness. Alcohol also can cause hypothermia by slowing down the metabolism, Vierling says.
A dangerous blood-alcohol level is different for everyone, so there is no chart or rule to follow. If any of these symptoms becomes extreme, especially erratic breathing, the person should seek medical attention immediately, advisably at an emergency room, Vierling says.
Stomachs are pumped in extreme cases. Usually, intravenous tubes are inserted into a person's arm to flush the system of alcohol. Vital signs are checked every 15 minutes during the first few hours.
Vierling regularly sees such cases, but most students do not. The fact that alcohol itself can kill produced shock on campus after Valerie's death.
"I think students are aware of it, but they're in the magical thinking `It won't happen to me,''' says Betty Jones, Radford University's substance abuse and alcohol education adviser.
"In some ways, this does help break down the denial."
Education efforts
Jones, Radford University's first substance abuse counselor, has been at the college since 1991. Her position was created by a state grant during Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration.
This past year, Jones helped develop about 150 campus programs dealing with alcohol education. One four-hour program, called On Campus Talking About Alcohol, helps students determine low-risk approaches to alcohol.
There is also a student group called Boosting Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students, which promotes alcohol education on college campuses. Dana Conner, a Radford University graduate student and BACCHUS adviser, says almost every weekend there are campus activities, such as movie nights and parties, that do not involve drinking.
"It's just a matter of making those alternatives a cool thing," he says. "Unfortunately, the attitude more prevalent in this country, not just on campuses, is alcohol is needed to socialize. That's not real helpful."
National and local statistics on alcohol use among students have stayed about the same through the years, even with university efforts to curb abuse.
"Any college administrator will tell you it's a very difficult situation to deal with," says Paul Harris, Radford's vice president for student affairs. "Unless you want to go to the extent of prohibition - and the country went to prohibition and it didn't work.
"The area where you can accomplish the most is in the area of education. Obviously, we will try even harder. ... What I hope will happen is students will listen a little closer."
University response
In the days after Cole's death, university administrators announced that two fraternities - Pi Kappa Phi and Chi Phi - were temporarily suspended because they violated campus alcohol policies.
The investigation, which is not complete, likely will lead to action within the campus judicial system, Harris says. That could mean long-term suspensions of the fraternities or even expulsion from the recognized university Greek system.
The suspensions have drawn criticism from some Greek members who believe administrators are trying to blame the fraternities for Valerie's death.
Harris says that's not the case. "One thing that should come out of this is, it's very easy to say this business of alcohol abuse on campus is a Greek problem. That is patently not true. Alcohol abuse is a student problem."
After the shock of Valerie's death wears off, Harris says, the challenge will be to keep the issue in students' minds, to keep them from becoming apathetic about alcohol abuse. That is what Valerie's parents are hoping for, too.
They hope the suspensions will curb drinking and send a message to other Greek organizations and all students.
But for right now, the Coles are not focusing their energy on the fraternities, the punishments or even the university's alcohol policies.
They're mourning the loss of their daughter.
"Love your children," John Cole says. "Pray to God that they get home again."
What is alcohol poisoning?
Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows down your body's central nervous system. Blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and the body's metabolism all are depressed.
When a person drinks too quickly, the blood level shoots up faster than the body can defend itself, according to Dr. Himanshu Peltel, director of an adolescent outpatient program at Mount Regis. The person could then slip into a coma, which affects respiration, and die.
The main danger sign, Peltel said, is when the intoxicated person is unable to stay awake.
Drinking statistics among college students:
* 44% of Virginia students reported regular drinking by age 16
* 30% of Virginia's college students reported binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in one sitting) within a two-week period.
* 42% of the nation's college students reported bing drinking in a two-week period.
* The student body of each college in the United States consumes enough alcohol to fill an Olympic-sized (430 million gallon) pool in a single year.
(Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Virginia State Council for Higher Education)
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