Family of Penn State student talks about Stop Campus Hazing Act as Senate prepares to vote on bill
PHILADELPHIA -- A bill mandating colleges report all hazing incidents appears poised to pass through Congress.
The House approved the legislation on Tuesday night.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it already has bi-partisan support.
Since 2000, there have been more than 100 hazing-related deaths on college campuses.
Penn State student Timothy Piazza -- who was from Hunterdon County, New Jersey -- died after falling down the steps during a frat initiation in 2017.
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Investigators determined he had consumed at least 18 drinks in under two hours.
Two frat leaders pleaded guilty to charges of hazing and reckless endangerment.
Piazza's mother has a message for other parents.
"Talk about it with your kids and let them know that it is not okay to hurt anybody because hazing is always intentional and it is always done with the intent to hurt or harm or demean somebody. There is no positive benefit from hazing," said Evelyn Piazza
Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey enforce the "Timothy Piazza Anti-Hazing Law."
"We're one step closer, right? We've got educational tools going out there. This is affecting every university across the country. We'll have information about what the bad actors on their campus are doing so that you can learn from that. Hopefully that will prevent the bad actors from getting their name out there. Maybe they'll say we might need to stop this now before they put our name on that list," said Stephen Gruver, whose son Maxwell also died following a hazing incident in 2017.
