Until a toxicology report is released, no one can say for sure whether alcohol played a role in Tony Villella's death. But here's what the police do know:
On Friday, Feb. 9, 15 to 20 people partied at Villella's apartment on Oberlin Court in the Colony at Kenilworth. A friend saw Villella drink approximately 10 beers and four shots. Then, around 2 a.m., that friend saw him pull a plastic bag out of his pocket and ingest a pill. Villella told him it was a painkiller.
Then Villella, a 19-year-old sophomore business administration major, fell asleep on a recliner in the living room.
Around 6 a.m., his friend woke up. He thought he heard Villella snoring, but couldn't wake him up. The friend moved Villella to the floor, thinking that would wake him. But it didn't.
The police report describes the rest:
"Once on the floor the victim began to 'vomit through his nose.' His breathing then became slow and irregular. After [the friend] continued efforts to make the subject alert, he contacted 911 for assistance."
Medics were on the scene by 6:45 a.m.
"They tried to revive him for an hour and it just didn't work," Villella's mother, Judy said.
He was transported to St. Joseph's Medical Center and pronounced dead at 7:36 a.m. Saturday.
The power of alcohol
None of the faculty, staff members, or administrators interviewed by The Towerlight this week knew of an instance where a Towson student has died of alcohol poisoning.
"My colleagues on campus have always said that we are lucky in that we haven't had that happen to us," Donna Cox, director of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Abuse Prevention Center at Towson, said. "That's why we take the efforts that we do so seriously."
It may have happened without the campus being informed.
"A lot of times, when they're off campus, it might be a suspicious death, but I'm not sure if we ever know specifically," Deb Moriarty, vice president for student affairs, said.
"There's been a couple of deaths off-campus since I've been here that it's just not 100 percent clear what happened. Unless the police or the family discloses, we don't usually know."
Still, the circumstances surrounding Villella's death raise questions about alcohol and other drug abuse among Towson students. Last November, senior Jared Seiden died after overdosing on heroin.
"In general, alcohol and other drug use is certainly a problem," Jim Henschen, director of substance treatment programs for the Counseling Center, said. "I would definitely say alcohol is a far greater problem, mainly because so many people do not recognize just how powerful it really is."
From the bar to the hospital
Whether or not students have died from alcohol poisoning, it's clear that some are drinking too much and winding up in the hospital.
Capt. Joe Herring of the Towson University Police Department said 29 students were transported to the hospital for alcohol-related incidents in 2006. The same number were transported in 2005, and 28 were transported in 2004.
Each year, 12 to 15 percent of on-campus alcohol-related incidents led to hospitalizations. In 2006, 143 incidents were recorded, 53 students were charged (usually with a citation), and 185 students were referred to judicial affairs. Of those students, 83 percent were under the age of 21.
When alcohol violations occur on campus, police officers decide whether to make an arrest, write a citation or refer the student to judicial affairs.
"The department has a zero tolerance policy on these infractions," Herring said. "You have to do something with it."
Many of the problems with alcohol and other drug abuse occur off campus. The TUPD collaborates with county officers to combat underage drinking at bars and liquor stores. Private security teams patrol apartment complexes, looking for out-of-control parties. Neighbors file complaints when buses pick up Towson students and drive to Baltimore clubs.
When there's a party at a place like the Colony, there's only so much the University can do.
Teaching students about the dangers
On campus, Cox's ATOD program provides funding for peer education, advising, and programmatic efforts to educate students about alcohol and other drug abuse.
"In terms of prevention and education, it's a small pot of money but it's better than no money at all," she said.
Towson receives the funds from the state's department of health and mental hygiene.
Also on campus, the Counseling Center provides substance treatment programs. Henschen teaches students about how the ways the body processes alcohol, the dangers of blood alcohol content levels, and types of dependency and addiction.
St. Joseph's Medical Center and the Sheppard Pratt Health System also provide similar services. Mike Gimbel, the director of substance abuse education at Sheppard Pratt, educates students about the warning signs of alcohol poisoning.
"Most students think that when you pass out, you just got too drunk. So they let the person sleep it off," Gimbel said. "What they don't know is, the difference between passing out from drinking too much and alcohol poisoning is so close that unless you were a paramedic or a doctor or a nurse, you might not know the difference. They literally could be watching their friends die at a party, thinking they're doing the right thing by sleeping it off. They don't know the difference."
Gimbel cited a report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which found that 1,700 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries, including motor vehicle crashes.
Less tragically, but more commonly, 25 percent of students in a national survey said their grades had suffered because of alcohol or other drug use.
"Alcohol use and abuse is happening at college campus all across the country, and Towson is no different," Gimbel said.
And once in a while, that fact comes sharply into focus. In an interview last week, Villella's mother said she didn't know exactly what happened on Feb. 9.
"As far as I know, my son was clean. He always screamed at people who were using drugs," she said.
A report on ABC2 Wednesday night said friends suspect the painkiller was OxyContin. Villella's friend, Andrew Prettyman, was quoted as saying "he's never done that stuff before."
Now his friends are left to ponder "what-if" scenarios. Villella took a leave of absence from Towson's ice hockey team last fall after a new coach took over. On the day Villella died, the team was in West Virginia on a road trip, his former teammate Ryan Parks said.
"If he hadn't quit then he would have been in West Virginia rather than at the party," he said.
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