Federal hazing transparency bill heads to House vote

The Stop Campus Hazing Act gives students and families access to information about hazing incidents on college campuses

Get involved: Ask your lawmakers to support the Stop Campus Hazing Act!

Federal legislation that would help end college hazing by requiring public disclosure of campus hazing incidents is headed to a House vote as soon as this month.

It’s the closest that national anti-hazing legislation has ever been to passage after a decade of advocacy efforts and three previous attempts to pass bills requiring all US colleges and universities to publicly disclose campus hazing incidents.

This week, the Stop Campus Hazing Act passed the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Advocates hope a vote in the full House could come during the week of September 23, which is National Hazing Awareness Week.

The Stop Campus Hazing Act (HR 5646/S 2901) includes three key components:

• Transparency: It requires all public and private colleges and universities to publish their hazing prevention policies on their websites, along with the organizations that have violated the policies.
• Reporting: It mandates that schools include hazing incidents in the annual crime reports (also called “Clery Reports”) they are required to produce.
• Education: It establishes campus-wide, research-based hazing education and prevention programs and creates a consistent definition of hazing.

Access to hazing data will save lives

This fall, HazingInfo.org joins national campus safety experts, anti-hazing advocates, national fraternity and sorority trade associations, and the parents of hazing victims to press for the passage of the Stop Campus Hazing Act.

One year ago, our family was honored to join the families of eight other victims of hazing to advocate for the bill on Capitol Hill. Over three days, we met with more than 30 lawmakers to share how hazing has affected us and how the bill would have saved our children’s lives.

As a former newspaper reporter, I did my best to investigate the fraternity my son, Sam, wanted to join when he started his freshman year at Washington State University (WSU). I found nothing concerning about that fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega (ATO).

But after Sam was killed by hazing during an ATO initiation ritual, our family learned that authorities from WSU, ATO, and local police intervened at the fraternity and its nearby annex house nearly 70 times for a range of misconduct allegations, including hazing, in the six years before Sam died.

None of that information was publicly available.

As I told Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and other legislators we met last fall: Families need data and information to make the best decisions for themselves on which college teams, groups, and clubs are worthy of their time and investment.

By bringing hazing out of the shadows, we can end toxic hazing culture on college campuses and protect the health and lives of our students.

Making hazing laws consistent

Today, a patchwork of state laws address hazing and hazing prevention across the nation. Six states have no anti-hazing laws at all. The rest of states are inconsistent in how they define, track, investigate, sanction, and report hazing.

The Stop Campus Hazing Act would bring much-needed consistency to hazing reporting and prevention efforts.

How to support the Stop Campus Hazing Act

This month, it’s essential that lawmakers hear from voters about the Stop Campus Hazing Act. Here are two ways to help pass the legislation:

1. Call or write an email to your state’s Senators and House members urging them to support the Stop Campus Hazing Act. It’s easy to fill out this form created by our partners at StopHazing. The form generates emails that are submitted directly to your local representatives urging their support.
2. Share this blog post and other posts about the Stop Campus Hazing Act on your social media channels. Help us create momentum for the bill’s passage.