The mother of a former Central Michigan University student with a severe peanut allergy says her son was hazed with peanut butter when members of a fraternity covered his face with it while he was passed out.
“He could have been killed,” Teresa Seely, the mother of student Andrew Seely, wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Seely said her son sought medical attention from a campus health clinic at the time of the incident, but is “lucky to be alive” because his allergy is so severe.
Authorities are investigating the incident, which happened in October, but Seely said her son had kept it a secret from them until he told family members Tuesday night, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Seely said her son started attending CMU last fall, and has now transferred after finishing a semester there to another school she did not name to protect her son from possible retaliation.
CMU spokeswoman Heather Smith said Wednesday that school officials are investigating the incident, but campus police do not have jurisdiction over the fraternity where it allegedly happened, Alpha Chi Rho, because it is located in a house off-campus.
Mt. Pleasant Police said they have not yet received a report on the incident.
Smith said the university is investigating the fraternity for student code of conduct violations, which carry penalties including suspension and permanent dismissal from the university.
The fraternity was banned from campus for hazing in 2011, and Smith said bids for its reinstatement as of fall 2016 were denied by the university and its interfraternity council.
The student who smeared the peanut butter on Andrew’s face said the incident was just a harmless prank and was not intended to be hazing.
“It was just a joke trying to be funny and put it on his face,” the student said to WDIV. “We didn’t know he was allergic. It was just college students being kids.”
Seely said she wants people to know about what happened to her 19-year-old son, and has filed a police report and hired an attorney, WJBK reported.