an anti-hazing law was introduced in the Ohio Senate Wednesday by Sens. Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard) and Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) following the death of Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz in an alleged hazing incident. Credit: Courtesy of TNS
Ohio senators are making another effort to pass anti-hazing legislation, this time with more strict penalties, following the death of Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz in an alleged hazing incident.
The bill, known as Collin’s Law, was first introduced into the Ohio Senate in 2019 after Ohio University student Collin Wiant died in a hazing incident. The bill introduced Wednesday by State Sens. Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard) and Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) would increase the penalty for hazing from a fourth-degree misdemeanor to a second-degree misdemeanor and, if involving drugs or alcohol, a third-degree felony.
“As a state senator, but more importantly as a mom of college-aged students myself, it is my hope and my intention that no other mother, or family, or community will have to grieve the loss of a loved one,” Kunze said in a press conference Wednesday morning.
The reintroduction of the bill comes after the death of 20-year-old Foltz, who was injured at an off-campus event hosted by Bowling Green’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, commonly known as PIKE, Thursday night. Foltz, a second-year in business and a PIKE pledge, was hospitalized Friday morning after being given “a copious amount of alcohol” at the event, Foltz family attorney Sean Alto said. He was placed on life support.
Foltz died Sunday. His family chose to donate his organs, Alto said.
Bowling Green placed its chapter of PIKE under interim suspension Friday, according to a university tweet Saturday. The university has launched a “full inquiry” into all Greek life chapters’ prevention and compliance responsibilities under university policy.
“We began to meet with our student leaders to decide the short- and long-term future of fraternity and sorority life at BGSU. In the days to come, we will also be reviewing all other student organizations,” the statement reads. The university also cautioned against spreading misleading information about the incident on social media.
The Bowling Green PIKE chapter has also been placed under suspension by PIKE’s international organization, according to a statement from the national organization. It is considering permanent suspension of the Bowling Green chapter.
Collin’s Law passed in the Ohio House of Representatives in November 2020 and was sent to the Senate’s Education Committee. It didn’t make it to the General Assembly before the end of the year, which is why it had to be reintroduced.
Collin Wiant was a first-year at Ohio University who died after collapsing at an off-campus Sigma Pi gathering in November 2018. A coroner ruled in February 2019 that he died from asphyxiation after inhaling gas from a nitrous oxide cartridge — known as a whippit.
Kathleen Wiant, the mother of Collin Wiant, joined Kunze and Gavarone in the press conference announcing the reintroduction of the bill Wednesday. She said her son was beaten and waterboarded in the weeks leading up to his death as part of a hazing ritual at underground fraternity Sigma Pi, and she became an anti-hazing advocate after his death in 2018.
“This bill is about changing the culture where hazing is accepted and even expected,” Wiant said in the press conference. “This bill is about saving lives.”
Since the original Collin’s Law was introduced in the spring of 2019, seven Ohio State fraternities have had their student organization status revoked by the university for hazing or endangering behavior, according to Ohio State’s sorority and fraternity life conduct history.
Related: A cycle of sanctions: How repeatedly disciplined fraternities stay on campus
Fraternities have been a part of Ohio State’s campus since the late 1800s, and in the more than 100 years since their establishment, nothing has ever caused the university to remove a frat from campus — not even death.
The Code of Student Conduct defines hazing as “doing, requiring or encouraging any act, whether or not the act is voluntarily agreed upon, in conjunction with initiation or continued membership or participation in any group, that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm or humiliation.” The code defines endangering behavior as taking or threatening action that jeopardizes the safety, health or life of a person or causes fear of such action.
Ohio State’s chapter of PIKE resigned its national charter in January following a university investigation that led to the revocation of its student organization status through August 2024. They were cited for violating alcohol rules, engaging in endangering behavior, failing to comply with university or civil authority, violating university rules or federal, state and local laws, and student conduct system abuse.
