Gov. Mike DeWine signed an anti-hazing bill commonly known as Collin’s Law into effect Tuesday. Credit: Randy Ludlow via TNS
Gov. Mike DeWine signed an anti-hazing bill inspired by multiple fatal university hazing incidents into law Tuesday.
The bill, known as Collin’s law, was first introduced in 2019 after the hazing death of Ohio University student Collin Wiant. The legislation was reintroduced to the Ohio Senate March 10 following the death of Bowling Green student Stone Foltz in an alleged hazing incident. The bill, which passed the Ohio Senate unanimously June 16, sets stricter penalties for hazing and will take effect in October.
“We can’t wait to get serious about this until we lose another child, until we lose another college student,” DeWine said at the signing.
According to the bill, hazing is defined as “means doing any act or coercing another including the victim, to do any act of initiation into any student or other organization or any act to continue or reinstate membership in or affiliation with any student or organization that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person, including coercing alcohol or a drug of abuse.”
It further states an organization “includes a national or international organization with which a fraternity or sorority is affiliated.”
New hazing penalties under the bill include a misdemeanor of the second degree or felony of the third degree. Under the legislation, colleges and universities are also required to develop anti-hazing policies.
Penalties for violating anti-hazing rules may include fines, probation, suspension, dismissal or expulsion. If an organization is found in violation, they may lose permission to operate on campus or under recognition of a school.
Foltz, 20, was injured at an off-campus event hosted by Bowling Green’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, commonly known as PIKE, March 4. He was hospitalized the following morning after being given a “copious amount of alcohol” at the fraternity event, Foltz family attorney Sean Alto said March 10. Foltz was placed on life support and died March 7.
“We made a promise to Stone on his hospital bed that we would keep fighting and we would not allow this to happen again to anyone,” Shari Foltz, Stone Foltz’s mother said at the signing.
Bowling Green’s chapter of the PIKE fraternity was permanently banned from the university April 9, according to a statement from the university.
Collin Wiant, the bill’s namesake, was a first-year at Ohio University who died after collapsing at a Sigma Pi fraternity event in November 2018. A coroner ruled that he died of asphyxiation after inhaling gas from a nitrous oxide cartridge, also known as a whippit.
Kathleen Wiant, Collin Wiant’s mother, said the new law honors her son’s protective nature over others.
“A few days after Collin died our family gathered around the kitchen table to write his obituary,” Kathleen Wiant said. ”The first thing my children said had to be in it was that Collin always stood up for the underdog; Collin was a protector by nature. I can think of no greater way to honor him than a law in his name designed for the sole purpose of protecting others.”
Sigma Pi faced disciplinary expulsion April 11, 2019, for hazing violations, according to Ohio University’s list of suspended sororities and fraternities. Effective 2017, Ohio University defined hazing as actions that endanger all aspects of a student’s health or safety, brutality, coerced consumption, acts intended to cause mental stress, coerced activities and acts of sexual violence, according to the hazing code defined in the Ohio University Administrative Policy Manual.
Collin’s Law passed in the Ohio House of Representatives November 2020, but didn’t make it to the General Assembly before the end of the year, leading to its recent reintroduction.
Since the first introduction of Collin’s law in spring 2019, seven Ohio State fraternities had their student organization status revoked due to endangering behavior or hazing violations, according to Ohio State’s sorority and fraternity life history website.
Ohio State’s chapter of the PIKE fraternity’s student organization status was revoked Jan. 26 following Code of Student Conduct violations involving alcohol, endangering behavior, failure to comply with university or civil authority, student conduct system abuse and violation of university rules or federal, state and local laws. According to Ohio State’s sorority and fraternity life history website, PIKE’s status will be revoked through Aug. 4, 2024.
“Collin’s Law is a step in the right direction, but we are not done,” Shari Foltz said at the signing. “We will continue to fight. Our fight is zero tolerance. We will prevent this from happening.”
To read more of The Lantern’s coverage on hazing and fraternities, click here.
