Parents of hazing victims react to House passage of 'Stop Campus Hazing Act'
Parents whose children died as a result of college hazing incidents are speaking out after the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously passed the "Stop Campus Hazing Act," a bill that could become the first federal law to address hazing across the country.
The bill, which now heads to the Senate, would require colleges and universities that receive federal student aid to provide anti-hazing programs to all students.
It would also require colleges and universities for the first time to report hazing incidents and publish online the names of organizations that have violated anti-hazing policies. The reports would go under the Clery Act, the federal campus safety law that requires colleges and universities to report crime statistics.
That type of legislative action is what Evelyn and Jim Piazza of Lebanon, New Jersey, believe could have saved the life of their son, Penn State student Timothy Piazza, who died from traumatic brain injuries on Feb. 4, 2017, two days after an alcohol-fueled party and hazing ritual known as "The Gauntlet."
"When my son said he wanted to join Beta Theta Pi, I looked it up and it said it was a non-drinking, non-hazing fraternity, and I thought he was making a good choice," Evelyn Piazza told ABC News' Janai Norman in an interview that aired Wednesday on "Good Morning America." "Come to find out after the fact that that chapter had been suspended a few years prior for hazing."
Timothy Piazza fell down a flight of stairs into the basement at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity during "The Gauntlet." Fraternity brothers carried Piazza back upstairs and placed him on a couch, where they poured water on his face and slapped him in an attempt to wake him up, according to a grand jury report that cited evidence including surveillance video, witness testimony and phone records.
A fraternity member finally called 911 about 12 hours after the initial fall, by which time Piazza was breathing heavily, had blood on his face and his skin had turned gray, according to the grand jury report.
In March 2017, the Beta Theta Pi fraternity was permanently banned from Penn State.
One year later, in 2018, the Piazzas reached a settlement with the fraternity's national organization over their son's death.
The terms of the settlement and amount of money the parties settled for was not disclosed, per the terms of the agreement, according to a statement released by the family at the time.
The settlement also included a "sweeping fraternity-conduct Reform Agreement aimed at averting another preventable death."
The reform program comprises 17 points, including requiring all chapter houses to be alcohol- and substance-free by August 2020, involving Piazza's parents in any decision-making about how the closed Beta chapter house at Penn state is used in the future and requiring that the college or university's police or public safety department be immediately notified of any reported student conduct violations that result in "serious bodily injury or death of a member, new member or third-party guest."
S. Wayne Kay, general secretary and chairman of the board for Beta Theta Pi's national organization, said at the time the settlement was announced that Piazza's death "remains one of the greatest disappointments and darkest hours in Beta's history."
"It is heartbreaking and numbing to know our former members let Tim and his family down in such a tragic way," Kay said in a statement. "There will never be enough words to describe the pain they feel, and Betas everywhere join with me in expressing our shared anger and sorrow that this could have happened in our fraternity."
In 2019, four Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers were sentenced after previously pleading guilty to hazing-related charges stemming from Timothy Piazza's death.
Since their son's death, the Piazzas have become vocal anti-hazing advocates, partnering with Stephen and Rae Ann Gruver, whose 18-year-old son Maxwell Gruver also died in 2017 following a night of drinking and alleged hazing at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity's Louisiana State University chapter.
The day after he died, Maxwell Gruver's blood alcohol level was still 0.495%, four times the legal limit, his father Stephen Gruver told ABC News in December 2017.
A former LSU student was sentenced in 2019 to five years in prison in connection with the 18-year-old's death.
Days after Gruver's death, Phi Delta Theta General Headquarters said it was immediately shuttering the LSU chapter, "based on the preliminary findings of an investigation that uncovered enough information to conclude that some chapter members were in violation of established risk management policies, including our Alcohol-Free Housing policy."
Stephen Gruver said that his family and the Piazzas remain committed to raising awareness about the dangers of hazing nearly a decade after their sons' deaths.
"We do this in honor of our sons," Stephen Gruver told Norman, in an interview alongside Evelyn and Jim Piazza. "We know that they would have expected us to follow this path, and we know that we're saving lives by getting this message out.
Jim Piazza added of their advocacy work, "If we don't do this, who's doing to do it?"
The parents said they are particularly focused on making sure people know that hazing goes beyond the stereotype of silly or embarrassing pranks.
"It comes in very, very different forms," said Stephen Gruver.
Added Evelyn Piazza, "It could be, 'Oh, you can't leave until you finish this handle of alcohol or wall sits or planks on broken glass.' It is not swallowing goldfish and streaking across campus. It's not like the movies."
In 2018, the Piazzas and the Gruvers joined with other parents who lost children due to hazing-related deaths to form the Anti-Hazing Coalition, a partnership that also includes the National Panhellenic Conference and the North American Interfraternity Conference.
According to its website, the goal of the coalition is to "eradicate hazing through aggressive student educational outreach, new state-level efforts to strengthen criminal and civil penalties for hazing and federal advocacy to use transparency to make lasting cultural change in student organizations and on university campuses."
ABC News' Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
