The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation Tuesday aimed at stopping hazing on college campuses.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act is being pushed by the Roswell family of Max Gruver, 18, who died in a hazing incident at Louisiana State University in 2017. It’s also supported by the family of Timothy Piazza, who died in 2017 two days after a drinking party at a fraternity house at Penn State University, where he was a student.
The bill requires institutions of higher education that participate in federal student aid programs to report hazing incidents. Each school must develop and distribute as part of its annual security report a comprehensive program to prevent hazing, which must include information on hazing awareness and hazing prevention.
“We do this in honor of our sons,” Gruver’s father, Steve, said in an interview with ABC News, alongside Piazza’s parents. “We know they would have expected us to follow this path and we know that we are saving lives by getting this message out.”
The legislation now goes to the U.S. Senate.
Gruver died of alcohol poisoning at LSU’s Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. At the time of his death, Gruver had an alcohol level of 0.495% — more than six times the legal limit for drivers. One fraternity member was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to five years in prison in connection with the Gruver case. The fraternity removed the LSU chapter’s charter. Gruver’s family later started The Max Gruver Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hazing on college campuses.
The Georgia Legislature passed a law named after Gruver aimed at protecting students from hazing. The law requires educational institutions to post hazing violations on their websites for at least five years.
In 2011, Robert Champion, who grew up in Decatur, died after a hazing incident involving some members of the Florida A&M University marching band.
What is hazing?
It’s when an enrolled student or prospectively enrolled student performs an activity as a condition or precondition of gaining acceptance or membership in a student organization that threatens his or her physical health. Hazing often comes after the person is pressured to consume any food, liquid, alcohol, drug or other substance in excess that results in vomiting, intoxication, unconsciousness or death.
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