Students getting settled in before the “Hazing Trap” talk Tuesday. Credit: Charlotte Huot | Lantern reporter
Five years ago, Kathleen Wiant’s world was shattered when police knocked on the door of her Dublin, Ohio, home at 3 a.m., to inform her that her son, Collin Wiant, had died.
She would soon discover that he was subjected to hazing for months while rushing Sigma Pi at Ohio University, which led to his eventual death with the forced inhalation of a whippet that contained nitrous oxide alone with a 12-minute delay between his falling unconscious and the dialing of 911.
Students and staff alike piled into Performance Hall at the Ohio Union Tuesday to hear Kathleen Wiant’s story during “The Hazing Trap,” a talk put on by the Greek Programming Board designed to facilitate a conversation with students about the dangers of hazing. Kathleen Wiant said her main question following her son’s death was: How could this happen to my son?
“If you would have asked me, I would have told you Collin Wiant was the last person in the world you could haze, he would’ve never fallen for that,” Kathleen Wiant said. “I’m embarrassed to say, but I had a stereotype in my mind of the kind of kid who would fall for hazing. But I learned it has nothing to do with how strong we are.”
After Collin Wiant’s death, Kathleen Wiant became an educator and fierce advocate against hazing, helping to successfully pass “Collin’s Law” in October 2021, which made hazing a felony punishable by jail.
Kathleen Wiant said she defines hazing as a trap because of the slow, incremental process it takes to coerce pledges.
“Hazing is a spectrum where it gradually increases,” Kathleen Wiant said. “It’s called the grooming process. The purpose of the grooming process is to make a connection with the victim and lower their inhibitions. That way you can gradually increase the abusive behavior and they become desensitized to it.”
Kathleen Wiant said she talked to Collin Wiant about hazing before he left for college.
“I think about it all the time, if I could go back to that conversation,” Kathleen Wiant said. “I would want him to know that hazing happens so slowly, you don’t even realize it’s happening.”
Olivia Macleod, senior director of the Greek Programming Board, said it is important to ensure students are “comfortable making informed decisions about engaging in group activities and how to intervene if it happens.”
“Programs like this one give students the platform to enact cultural change on campus by emphasizing the importance of teamwork and personal growth without resorting to hazing,” Macleod said.
Although Kathleen Wiant can’t go back in time and warn Collin Wiant, she said she now has the power and knowledge to help educate others.
“Hazing typically starts out with small, benign actions,” Kathleen Wiant said. “When you get into hazing, you don’t know at what point it’s going to get out of control. Hazing is a process, but it’s not a controlled process.”
