fraternities now under renewed scrutiny after the death of tim piazza at penn state. 14 members are now facing criminal charges. david, the district attorney is telling us the family is not speaking at this time but we know max gruver just moved into his college dorm less than a month ago and now his family is preparing for a funeral. >> much more ahead on "world news tonight" this friday. the controversy over this interpreter. members of the deaf community asking for an apology after what he signed during the storm. what did he message and why some are outraged tonight? we reported here this evening the woman who asked to borrow a phone and took off and dragging the victim when he tried to chase her down. unbelievable. and narrow escape tonight. the crossing gate closing behind that driver. the train was coming. what she does next. a lot more news ahead. every year we take a girl's trip. remember nashville? kimchi bbq. kimchi bbq. amazing honky tonk?? i can't believe you got us tickets. i did. i didn't pay for anything. you never do. send me what i owe. i've got it. i mean, you did fin

brothers say they will continue to fight and there was no way for any of the brothers to know that tim piazzahat night. >> sara, thank you so much. >> we'll see you back here at 10:00 as smerconish starts now. i make it easy to save $600 on car insurance, so being cool comes naturally. hmm. i can't decide if this place is swag or bling. it's pretzels. word. ladies, you know when you switch, you get my bomb-diggity discounts automatically. ♪ no duh, right? [ chuckles ] sir, you forgot -- keep it. you're gonna need it when i make it precipitate. what, what? what? ♪ ♪ >> i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia we welcome our viewers in the united states an around the world as harvey's devastation becomes clear, what lies ahe

last february it was tim piazza, a fraternity pledge at penn state who died after a drinking ritual called. >> his distraught parents talking to matt. >> they basically treated our son as road kill and a rag doll. >> reporter: for too many students, hazing is a rite of passage. >> young people want to prove themselves. they want to gain and earn the respect from people already in the group. >> reporter: when fraternities are removed from the campus for hazing, sometimes they form secret clubs and take it underground. just three weeks ago, the american university expelled 18 students from the underground fraternity. >> i think the campus reaction, everyone is relieved. >> reporter: the new nbc monkey poll finds a growing sense that enough is enough. 86% say hazing is unacceptable because it can lead to dangerous behavior and injuries. 75% say something needs to be done versus 22% who call it a part of college life. >> it was good to see that a lot of people with knowledge of what hazing was and identified it as a dangerous practice. the tolerance for some of the back tib practices is decrea

say he did not see sill yams death as a quote penn state case referring to the hazing death of tim they piazzaman accused in the brutal murder of the temple university student last month face ace judge this morning. twenty-nine year-old former temple student joshua hupperterz faces murder and other charges in the death of 22-year old jena burleigh. investigators say hupperterz killed burrly after meeting her and he used ride sharing services lyft to take burleigh 's body to his grandparent's property in northeastern pennsylvania. >>> also president trump delivers his most harsh warning yet to the north korean regime during his first major address to the u.n. general assembly. during the speech president referred to north korean lead 's kim jong unas rocket man and warn u.s. could destroy the north, if forced to defend itself or its allies hillary clinton react todd that speech during an appearance on the late show with stephen colbert. >> i thought it was very dark, dangerous, and not the kind of message that the leader of the greatest nation in the world should be delivering. >> clinton was o

last february, it was tim piazza, after a drinking ritual called the gauntlet.ng to matt. >> they basically treated our son as road kill and a rag doll. for too many students, hazing is a rite of passage. >> young people want to prove themselves. they want to gain and earn the respect. from the people in the group, they say, i went through this. i want you to go through this. >> reporter: when fraternities and sororities are punished, sometimes students form secret clubs and do it underground. american university expelled 18 units from an underground fraternity. our poll finds a growing sense says enough is enough. 86% believe hazing is unacceptable. 75% says something needs to be done. versus 22%, who call it a part of college life. >> it was good to see a lot of people acknowledged what hazing was and identified it as a dangerous practice. the tolerance for some of these practices is decreasing. >> reporter: lsu has canceled all greek events on campus. >> reporter: at ten state, the university has taken over monitoring fraternalti tfratern sororities. >> it's

charges dropped altogether including joe ems who said he thought piazza had too much to drink and was sleeping it off. but you were there when tim was laying unconscious on a sofa, correct? >> yes. but i was not really involved in the people taking care of tim. i wasn't really fully aware of what was going on. i didn't see the fall. i wasn't around. >> but this was your friend. didn't you try to figure out if he was okay? >> there were other people taking care of him. >> joey ems is long gone before this morphs into a young fellow who looks like a drunken frat kid to a young man who is in obvious distress. he is home sleeping at that point. >> reporter: joe ems said he wish he had known how badly timothy piazza was injured because if he had, he would have saved his friend. many of the defense attorneys who have represented these fraternity brothers have said this was a tragic accident and not a crime. still, with the charges that remain, some of them could face as much as one to two years in prison. dan and paula. >> linzie, thank you. as you know, i spent some time with the piazza family. this is an incredibly hard ordeal for t

. >> reporter: piazza's parents pray something positive might come out of today's verdict. >> tim isr son anymore. he represents every son and daughter of every family that has someone that they want sent to college that may want to participate in greek life. has implemented new greek life restrictions including stronger enforcement to prohibit underage drinking. during these pretrial hearings it emerged that just a few minutes before timothy piazza fell down those stairs, university security guards actually showed up at the party and gave it the all clear. >> yeah, a lot of disturbing things came out of these hearings. i spent time with tim's parents. if this decision doesn't go their way i imagine they will be very sad today. >> hopefully it will go their way. >> we'll have to wait and see. >>> coming up as millions of americans get ready to take to the skies for the holiday weekend, why one unruly passenger was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 to an airline. come on back. ♪ if you have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis,... ...isn't it time to let the real you shine through? maybe

tim pia sdplchpiazza. >> why do you think that we are now at a point where the federal government needs to get involved in this? >> talk to the piazzaly who lost a son. >> we will educate students about first what inappropriate hazing is and then being second, where and how they can report it. third, the school itself needs to be a partner in cracking down on inappropriate activities like dangerous hazing. >> reporter: schools would be required to report this as part of an annual crime report. >> we know it's happening so now we need to get it reported. >> reporter: this center focuses on kids' safety and parents should look beyond the numbers at policies and education. >> if the campus is showing zero reports of hazing, that's a red flag that it might not be being talked about. >> reporter: they also encourage parents and students to think of hazing as anything that can cause harm both physically or mentally. >> it's just something that is being done on the side, on the sly, they have to, you know, go behind security, do it late at night, anything that doesn't sound right, it has to be -- you have to say no. >> she is now focused o

piazzas, whose son tied during hazing at penn state university. and their lawyer. there was incident of alleged hazing at lsu last week. we know what happened with your son, tim.not really. we really didn't think very much of either of our boys joining a fraternity or hazing or anything like that. it kind of came to us a little later on that tim was interested in joining a fraternity. and frankly, that thought really was not a significant thought of mine. >> when you heard he was interesting to join a fraternity, did hazing come to your mind even at that point? >> it did. but when i read the tenets of this fraternity, i felt better because it was a nonhazing, nonalcohol fraternity. i thought, we're good. >> unfortunately, we know the awful things that transpired with your son. it's really unspeakable. what does it mean for you to be here today? what we're about to do to sit down and have this conversation. i think it's important to ground it in what you are hoping to accomplish here. >> the legislation about holding the schools accountable. the schools need to hold the students accountable. and the court systems need to hold the students accountable, as well.