GENESEO, NY — It was painful to watch the mother of Alex Stucki in court Tuesday as her son was sentenced to two felony counts related to the March fraternity hazing death of Arman Partamian.

I’m not sure what exactly triggered her onset of emotion, but something District Attorney Tom Moran said was powerful enough to cause a catch in my own throat — and I am just an observer.

“You will walk out of this court as convicted felon,” he told Stucki, “but you will walk out into the sunshine, see the colors the leaves are turning and hug your mother. Arman can’t do that anymore because of this foolishness.”

Stucki and Devin McClain, members of the now-defunct PIGS fraternity, were sentenced to four months of weekend jail, probation and the charge from County Judge Robert Wiggins to use the community service sentence to speak out against college binge drinking.

I have four children of my own — from newborn Milo to 10-year-old Miryam. So much of my time, emotional resources and hard-earned money goes into making sure that the four of them have the very best start in life I can muster. If any of them are lucky enough to be accepted into a prestigious college like SUNY Geneseo, I will feel that, in spite of my flaws, I did right by them.

I cannot begin to image the absolute shock and despair felt by Arman Partamian’s parents when the little boy they nurtured, worried over, disciplined and loved — the boy they sent to one of New York’s finest institutions — turned up dead because of an out-of-control party.

“I spent two-and-a-half hours with Arman’s mother in New York City and not for a second were her eyes dry,” Moran told McClain prior to sentencing.

I am seeing my children at the beginning of their journey — thrilled at every little milestone from recognizing letters of the alphabet to pottytraining. Even Baby Milo fills me with joy when he manages a brief smile.

Arman’s parents must have been so proud of him not long ago at his high school graduation, and they must have been looking forward to meeting his future wife, seeing the home he would have chosen and seeing their grandchildren.

As Judge Wiggins noted in his remarks, many of the letters that flooded in supporting the two PIGS members dismissed the drinking death as just something everyone does in college. Getting dangerously drunk, for so many, is considered a normal rite of passage, a so-called sowing of wild oats.

By not taking the strongest, most public sort of stance against ritualized binge drinking — even off-campus — SUNY Geneseo and every other college in the country stands silently complicit.

When a student donned blackface and portrayed a rapper as a Halloween prank two years ago, the college held a series of well-publicized roundtable discussions to raise awareness of the ills of racism.

Where are such roundtables now?

I commend the members of the college swim team, which met on the courthouse steps last Thursday to denounce college binge drinking — but it’s going to take a lot more than that. It’s going to take hundreds upon hundreds of students making the same pledge — and faculty and administration standing alongside them.

Tagged as: fraternities, hazing, Partamian, SUNY Geneseo