York student Annie Truong-Le’s passing at this summer’s Veld Music Festival shocked Toronto and surrounding communities.
Truong-Le, 20, was studying to complete her BA in political science.
She died suddenly after allegedly ingesting unknown party drugs at the two-day music event held on August 2 at Downsview Park.
The student’s family has been understandably heartbroken by the event, with Truong-Le’s
friends and family lashing out at media outlets via Twitter as a result of the news coverage.
Truong-Le interned for City Councillor Anthony Perruzza, helping constituents with their municipal issues. She also helped organize special events,community meetings and assisted with and organized community advocacy.
“Annie was a smart, charismatic young woman full of life, full of purpose with a great future,” says Perruzza.
“Her sudden passing is a terrible loss for all of us. I will miss her.”
According to Perruzza, she spent a great deal of volunteer time assisting others and asking for nothing in return. She had a bubbly, infectious personality and was the kind of person many could not help but like.
Truong-Le was also very active with a local community agency called MATA (Mentoring Arts Tutoring Athletics), which helps youth by providing guidance and mentorship. The program aims to promote post-secondary education and betterment of youth in marginalized communities.
Regarding the consumption of drugs and alcohol, the university has a number of initiatives to prevent irresponsible consumption at this year’s frosh, regardless of the incident.
The National College Health Assessment statistics regarding campus alcohol consumption breaks through the illusion of York students heavily consume alcohol.
Based on the study sample, people thought only 4.7 per cent of York students abstain from alcohol. But according to the study, 28 per cent of York students refrain from the use of alcohol completely.
Health Education at York also supports the delivery of Alcohol EDU, an alcohol teaching program to all first year students living in residence, as well as varsity athletes, orientation leaders, and other peer leaders from across the university.
According to Leah State, coordinator at Health Education, York is currently in the process of rolling out a bystander intervention program.
New students are urged to use the multitude of York safety initiatives, including the safety app which, to date, has been downloaded almost 13,000 times.
Ryan Moore, Assistant News Editor
Photo courtesy of Facebook.
