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Mazel
Toy!.

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Courtney's
Legacy

The Cantor family deals- with
Courtney's death and
moving forward.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

C

ourtney Cantor was only 18 when she
died in 1998, but the circumstances of
her death made news across the country.
Her fatal fall from a sixth-floor dormito-
ry window at the University of Michigan brought
attention to the conduct of sororities and fraterni-
ties and how school administrators respond to
that conduct.
Detroit News columnist George Cantor, at the

remembers a young woman who earned top
grades, sought to increase her circle of friends
and approached everyday activities with a
sense of humor.
George Cantor also decided to accept speak-
ing engagements and match different sections
of the book to the audience. His next appear-
ance will be Feb. 27 before the Grosse Pointe
Jewish Council.
"I'll talk about how the book came to be
George Cantor
written and why it was written the way it
was," says Cantor, 61, who recently spoke to a
group at Temple Israel, another at Temple Kol Ami and to parents
of students at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, where his
-
daughter graduated.
"I'm going to concentrate specifically on the pressures (a child's
death) puts on a marriage, which were tornlly unexpected when it
happened to us, and how we dealt with that.
"When I'm in front of a Jewish group, I emphasize what being
with a minyan at Temple Israel did to strengthen our religious con-
victions. When I'm with a secular group, I speak about college
drinking and how colleges are not dealing with it effectively."
While Cantor's writing objective was to memorialize his daughter,
he also wanted to express his gratitude for the love and support
shown to his family and to clarify details of Courtney's last night
and the investigation that followed. He describes what he was told
about the fraternity party she attended, the alcohol that was served
there illegally and the later finding of traces of the date-rape drug
GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) in his daughter's body. Cantor
believes that GHB distorted his daughter's sensitivities and thinking,
and he surmises that she felt especially cold because of the drug,
tried to shut the window, lost her balance on her dormitory loft
structure and fell to her death. Cantor writes that tests showed his
daughter's blood-alcohol level was lower than the level at which per-
sons are considered legally intoxicated.
Because of the focus of Cantor's book, he does . not write about
Courtney Cantor
what infuriated him the most, the consequences faced by the frater-
nity. Although it was permanently suspended from the university
darkest time of his life, answered reporters' ques- • and some misdemeanor charges were pursued, he said he doesn't
feel the punishment was severe enough, especially with information
tions about his daughter's last days and appeared
on the CBS television program "48 Hours" to dis- that members continued to make phony identification cards after
Courtney's death.
cuss the problems that go beyond his family's
"My solution is to either enforce the law or change the law when
experience.
After the attention dimmed, Cantor, the author it comes to underage drinking," says Cantor, of West Bloomfield. "I
think the wiser choice would be to allow drinking at age 18 to
of a dozen books, decided there was more to say
remove the mystique, and then preach moderation."
and wrote Courtney's Legacy: A Father's Journey
Courtney's Legacy, released at the end of last year, also tells about
(Taylor Trade Publishing; $22.95). The book

2/22
2002

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