Editor’s note: This is part of our blog series, “The State of Hazing,” investigating the impact of hazing laws in states that require public disclosure of hazing incidents.
At least 21 hazing incidents have been publicly reported by 5 Washington colleges and universities since 2018 — but experts say that number is low and doesn’t reflect the true scope of hazing on the state’s college campuses.
One reason: Only 35% of Washington colleges and universities are in compliance with a state law that requires all public and private schools to disclose campus hazing cases on their websites.
A new HazingInfo.org investigation finds 20 out of 31 higher education institutions in Washington are not disclosing hazing incidents despite a legal requirement to do so.
“Hazing doesn’t stop because we pass a law, obviously,” Leavitt said. “It’s discouraging to hear about the ones not complying. They know better. Clearly, more work needs to be done.”
Leavitt has called for a work session on Sam’s Law to better understand how institutions are implementing the law. That session is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2, at 1:30 pm in front of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee.
Washington’s law was named after Sam Martinez, a Washington State University freshman who died in 2019 of alcohol poisoning following a hazing ritual at Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.
Sam’s family partnered with Leavitt to pass Sam’s Law in 2022 and a second bill in 2023 that made hazing a felony in Washington.
Across the nation, the HazingInfo.org investigation found 937 reported incidents of hazing on 174 campuses between 2018 and February 2025. That total only reflects data from the nine states, including Washington, that currently require public reporting of hazing incidents.
HazingInfo found 11 Washington colleges and universities that make their hazing data available publicly as required: Bellevue College; Central Washington University; Eastern Washington University; Seattle University; University of Puget Sound; all three University of Washington campuses (Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma); Washington State University; Western Washington University; and Whitman College.
The HazingInfo investigation did not include other kinds of organizational misconduct like alcohol violations or assaults that weren’t officially labeled as hazing.
Five of Washington’s 31 colleges and universities don’t even have a formal hazing policy, while 14 campuses do not have an online reporting form for students and others to report hazing.
“It’s not just physical, it’s the mental anguish they’re putting these kids through in the name of brotherhood. And it’s sickening,” Colleen Tyler said.
After her son died, Tyler heard from a couple dozen people with their own stories about hazing they experienced or witnessed at Washington State University and beyond.
“I just don’t know what else it’s going to take to change,” Tyler said. “It’s a felony, you have to report it now, and yet … the schools are almost complicit in it. They get the police reports, they know who the bad organizations are, they know the patterns.”
Schools tell parents they are “all about campus safety,” she said. “Your words have to match your actions. You can’t tell us you care about the kids and then not report on hazing.”
“To us, that means the education and the awareness are working,” said Salemme, UW’s hazing prevention and response specialist.
UW has received 13 reports of hazing so far this academic year, he said — nearly the same as for all of 2023-24. But not all hazing reports are substantiated after an investigation.
The state’s flagship university has publicly reported nine hazing incidents since 2018, the largest number in the state. Those are incidents that have been investigated, formally determined to be hazing, and included in the UW’s hazing transparency report.
Washington State University (WSU) has publicly reported eight hazing incidents since 2018.
In a recent presentation to the state Legislature, WSU reported a total of 52 violations of student organization policies (including hazing) since 2023. Of those:
Salemme’s role is itself an outgrowth of Sam’s Law. The UW created the position following the law’s passage.
Sam’s Law has ushered in other changes at UW, including:
“We have good buy-in, and it needs to be a campus-wide approach and getting everybody on the same page to change the culture,” Salemme said. “We still have a long way to go, it’s not perfect. But there’s a lot of positive momentum.”
Not every Washington campus has the resources to dedicate a full-time staff position to hazing prevention like the UW, Salemme said. At smaller schools, it may not be clear whose job it is to oversee hazing reporting and prevention activities.
Salemme said he has worked to position UW as a leader in hazing prevention across the nation. On June 24, UW will host the first Pacific Northwest Anti-Hazing Summit for campus professionals from 10 Western states. More than 60 people have registered to attend.
Sam’s Law has led to other changes in EWU's response to hazing, said Elise Brehmer, EWU’s assistant director for sorority and fraternity life.
As part of her hazing prevention work with students, Brehmer said she often shows an episode of the CBS program “60 Minutes” featuring Sam Martinez’s family discussing his hazing death with reporter Anderson Cooper.
“When I think of prevention, it’s so much bigger than just ‘We don’t haze,’” Brehmer said. “It can’t just be a one-off workshop. Our approach is … how are we building healthy organizations and students so they know how to identify unhealthy behaviors and they’re not perpetuating those behaviors.”
The updated definition of hazing under Sam’s Law has helped EWU focus on a broader range of behaviors that can be considered hazing, she said, and the school’s new Hazing Prevention Committee required by the law means “it’s not just me alone working on this” but part of a more comprehensive campus approach, she said.
She also appreciates that sororities and fraternities must now notify the university if they initiate a hazing investigation, information that wasn’t always shared in the past.
It remains challenging to get students to report hazing for fear of being ostracized or getting themselves or other students in trouble, Brehmer said.
Organizations found responsible for hazing may lose their recognition by the university, meaning they can’t formally recruit new members or operate with the approval and backing of the university.
Those organizations may end up with less oversight, even while some continue to operate informally.
“In practice, that has taken away some of our ability to provide corrective action immediately,” Brehmer said. “We don’t want to deter students from reporting it or hiding those behaviors, and we don’t want organizations to exist that jeopardize student safety.”
Overall, Brehmer said she feels encouraged about the conversations on hazing prevention that are happening now, especially with the recent passage of the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act requiring all US colleges and universities to publish a Campus Hazing Transparency Report on their websites by December.
“We’re not there yet. There’s still under-reporting occurring. But I think we’re moving in the right direction,” she said.
Learn about hazing on your campus: HazingInfo's Campus Lookup
Next in “The State of Hazing” blog series: A detailed look at hazing data in Georgia.