Legislation reintroduced to curb college hazing

WASHINGTON D.C. — With the recent death of a Bowling Green State University sophomore stemming from hazing in a fraternity, legislation has been re-introduced that would hold schools accountable and force them to report any instances of wrongdoing.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) held a news conference on Wednesday to talk about the bill, that was originally put forth in January 2019.

“We have to do more as a society to stop these students’ deaths,” said Brown.

The Report and Educate About Campus Hazing (REACH) Act addresses hazing incidents that involve students attending an institution of higher education (IHE).

Hazing is defined as an intentional, knowing or reckless act committed by a student, or a former student, of an IHE against another student, that is connected with an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in, an organization that is affiliated with the IHE; and contributes to a substantial risk of physical injury, mental harm, or degradation or causes physical injury, mental harm or personal degradation.

The act would force IHE to disclose hazing incidents that were reported to campus security authorities or local police agencies in its annual security report.

Also, must IHE would have to provide students with an educational program on hazing that includes information on hazing awareness, hazing prevention and the IHE’s policies on hazing.

“Parents shouldn’t have to worry for their child’s safety because they joined a fraternity or sorority,” said Brown. “[The bill] would establish a standard definition for all schools.

“We can’t solve this problem until we have good data on how many students are getting hurt. The bill would require colleges to establish a campus-wide program backed by evidence to educate students about the dangers of hazing.

“This isn’t a rite of passage; it’s not fun and games in any way. It’s not something everyone does or everyone needs to do in schools. It’s dangerous, it threatens the health and safety and lives of far too many Ohio students.”

Brown was joined on the call by Kathleen Wiant, who’s son, Collin, died in a hazing accident at Ohio University in 2018.

“Two years ago, my family was awoken in the middle of the night to police at our door, telling us that our beautiful 18-year-old son Collin was found dead at a fraternity house in Athens,” said Wiant. “As the months went by, we began to learn that for the last weeks of Collin’s life, he had endured extreme hazing, he was beaten, belted, water boarded, and forced drugs. Our family has experienced the most painful type of heartbreak unimaginable because of hazing. Since then, we’ve devoted ourselves to changing the culture of hazing.

Wiant said something needs to change, saying that each year there are 1.5 million high school students that are hazed.

“At the college level, 55% of students in clubs, teams and organizations are hazed and don’t report it. Hazing’s only reported 5% of the time,” she said. “We have a culture that dismisses hazing with this “boys will be boys” mentality. When torturous acts like beating and water boarding are dressed up with words like tradition, rituals, brotherhood or rites of passage, we call it hazing. We need to call it what it really is: it’s abuse and it’s barbaric.”

Wiant said that if there would have been laws in place prior to her son’s death, her family could have read the reports and saw that his fraternity had been in trouble previously.

“Had this been in effect when Collin was pledging a fraternity, we would have been able to see his fraternity had previously sent a pledge to the ER with their head gashed open, requiring eight staples to the head as a result of a pledging activity,” she said.

“We need to change the culture of hazing and how it’s viewed. Changing this culture begins with changing the laws because no family should have to experience the most painful type of heartbreak imaginable due to hazing.”

When asked if a new law would make any real difference, Wiant pointed to drunk driving.

“We know that when we change laws, it does change behavior. You look at drunk driving; decades ago, that was a serious problem and enough people got angry about it and changed the laws,” she said.

“That’s where we are with hazing. Once people realized it’s taken seriously and this could be a felony, then they start changing their behavior.”

Brown said this if this bill becomes law, it would affect every campus organization, not just Greek life.

Brown was asked what’s different this time around, when the bill was introduced over two years ago, two months before a hazing occurrence happened at Miami University in Ohio when a student who was rushing Delta Tau Delta was hospitalized with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.231.

“Clearly Miami acted, but universities overall haven’t acted the way that we hoped they would have,” said Brown. “The time’s now, if they’re not going to do what they need to do, only kind of retroactively, that’s not good enough.

“People are just paying more attention. What happened at Bowling Green got a whole lot of attention, not just in Northwest Ohio, but also the state and I think in the country.”