At Santa Fe High School in New Mexico, two football players following an accusation that they held another teammate down and sexually assaulted him. In Orange County, California, reports surfaced of at least who were sexually assaulted by their teammates at Santa Margarita Catholic High School. Mead High School, in Spokane, Washington, fired their coach after filed a lawsuit alleging that white teammates assaulted them. 

Studies show that of all high school students experience hazing, with 25% of respondents saying that it took place in a sports setting. Dr. Elizabeth Allan, the founder of the research group StopHazing, as “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them, regardless of a person’s willingness to participate.” 

Hazing is most common in large groups like sports teams, where individuals are attempting to establish their position within hierarchies shaped by norms of traditional masculinity. These rituals can range from an unspoken tradition of requiring freshman athletes to carry the water bottles of seniors to sexually abusive behavior. 

Researchers fear that in severity and frequency, with sexually degrading acts emerging more often as a shortcut to humiliate and disempower a student. Despite their prevalence in sports, it is vital to recognize that hazing and sexual violence are not inherent to sports; they take hold when a culture of abuse is allowed to thrive.

As a sexual violence prevention educator who has facilitated workshops on building healthy sport cultures, I know firsthand that sports don’t need to be this way, especially when school districts and coaches prioritize efforts to create healthy and inclusive cultures on their athletic teams.

My journey as an advocate  began when I was a captain of the Melrose High School track and field team in Massachusetts. , a local nonprofit with a mission of raising community awareness of domestic and teen dating violence, has worked closely with the Melrose Public Schools to implement prevention programs at the middle and high school levels since 1998.

In my senior year, I was selected along with other sport captains to participate in a gender violence, sexual harassment, and bullying prevention program called (MVP). The program follows a model in which the social capital and leadership skills common in high school athletes are leveraged to promote a culture of respect and inclusion.

Facilitators lead participants through discussions of realistic scenarios covering a variety of abusive behavior they might witness as bystanders and discuss how they can safely and realistically intervene. Participants also learn how gender stereotypes and dominant cultural expectations of masculinity – such as telling sexist jokes, catcalling, harassing girls and women, and making homophobic remarks – contribute to a culture where sexual violence and hazing are allowed to thrive.

Such partnerships with community-based nonprofits can help schools tackle these issues. But, buy-in from coaches is critical as well.   found that 86% of coaches agreed that hazing was an issue in their community, but only 40% had a clear set of standards around appropriate behavior or how and when to intervene when hazing occurs. The study also found that six in 10 of coaches personally experienced hazing when they played a sport, which may lead them to normalize these behaviors unless they are provided with proper education and resources on how to build healthy team cultures.

Given that many high school coaches are volunteers or receive minimal compensation, they cannot be expected to drive change without the support of school districts and policymakers. In 2024, the Virginia Senate took a significant step by requiring the development and implementation of a research-based anti-hazing education program in all high school health and physical education classes statewide. 

This builds on Virginia’s earlier efforts in the anti-hazing space, particularly Adam’s Law, passed in 2022 in honor of Virginia Commonwealth University student , who died in a fraternity hazing incident in 2021. Adam’s Law mandates hazing prevention education at all Virginia colleges, grants legal immunity to bystanders who intervene, and requires universities to publicly report hazing incidents online.

In his last weeks in office, then-President Joe Biden signed the , which requires universities to collect and publicly report data on hazing incidents. While this will improve transparency and awareness, the high number of violent hazing incidents in the past year’s high school football season shows the need for earlier intervention, as modeled in Massachusetts and Virginia.

School districts can reinforce their commitment to hazing prevention by implementing clear policies that include education for both coaches and athletes on what constitutes hazing, how to intervene safely, and how to foster team traditions and school spirit in ways that promote inclusion rather than harm. Additionally, athletic directors should establish anonymous reporting mechanisms that empower athletes to speak up safely and enforce zero-tolerance policies with well-defined consequences for hazing.

Sports have the potential to teach young people the value of teamwork, resilience in the face of challenges, and principles of lifelong physical fitness. But to truly fulfill this potential, all stakeholders in youth sports—policymakers, school administrators, athletic directors, coaches, and parents—must treat hazing, sexual violence, and abusive behaviors as the urgent, preventable issues that they are. 

If you have experienced sexual violence, hazing, or any form of abuse in a sports setting, you are not alone. is a no-cost call, text, and chat service for athletes, coaches, parents, and anyone in sports communities who has questions or concerns about abuse or mental well-being in athletics.

College students in New Jersey would lose state financial aid if they get convicted of hazing under a Democratic lawmaker introduced last week.

Assemblywoman Carol Murphy’s proposal would expand on anti-hazing protections lawmakers adopted in 2021 after the 2017 death of , a 19-year-old Readington resident and Penn State student whose fraternity hazing led to his fatal fall down a staircase.

That required all middle schools, high schools, and higher education institutions to adopt anti-hazing policies and penalties. It also upgraded criminal penalties for hazing, making it a third-degree crime if a victim suffered serious injury or died and a fourth-degree crime if the victim suffered any injury at all.

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The law was hailed nationally because it has an “amnesty clause” prohibiting the prosecution of someone who alerts authorities that a hazing victim needs medical assistance and a “consent clause,” meaning those involved can still be held responsible even if the victim willingly participated.

Murphy’s bill comes four months after federal lawmakers introduced bipartisan that would require colleges to report hazing incidents annually, educate students about the practice, and alert students and parents to campus student groups with a history of hazing.

Hazing deaths in the United States by any government entity, but an anti-hazing advocate who maintains an unofficial found at least one person a year died from hazing between 1959 and 2021. He found no deaths publicly attributed to hazing in 2022 or 2023.

In March 2022, a Rutgers University freshman fell down stairs and fractured his skull after drinking “life-threatening amounts of alcohol” as part of pledge-hazing activities at Theta Chi fraternity, according to he filed seven months later against Rutgers, the fraternity, and various other named defendants. That case remains in litigation.

University officials determined the fraternity violated Rutgers’ anti-hazing policies and state law and ordered the chapter removed, according to a Rutgers’ hazing

Such reporting was required under the 2021 law, which directed all public and private colleges, starting in January 2022, to publicly post data on their websites twice a year on hazing incidents, including data dating back five years, if available. It did not mandate central tracking.

The reporting can be tough to find on some college websites and the level of detail reported varies between institutions.

The reports show most hazing incidents statewide involved fraternities and sororities. Common incidents included underage students taken for hospital care because of forced excessive drinking, sleep deprivation, mandated house-cleaning, physical beating, bullying, and verbal abuse, while less common reports involved “paddling,” forced miles-long marches in freezing weather, and fraternity members directed to by doing “a robot dance” and “Dragon Ball Z Saiyan scream.”

This is the fourth time Murphy, who represents Burlington County, has introduced the bill. It passed unanimously in the Senate in 2019 but stalled in the Assembly, and it failed to advance in the two most recent legislative sessions.

Murphy didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Her legislation notes that high-profile hazing incidents, including the deaths of Piazza and students at and , demonstrate that additional deterrents are needed to reduce hazing.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on and .

Max Gruver spent the early morning hours of Sept. 14, 2017, heavily intoxicated and passed out on a couch inside the Phi Delta Theta chapter house at Louisiana State University.

He had been forced to repeatedly chug 190-proof Diesel liquor in a hazing ritual called “Bible Study,” during which pledges are quizzed on fraternity facts. The incident caused Gruver, a freshman majoring in political communications, to inhale his own vomit into his lungs.

By the time fraternity members finally sought medical aid the next morning, Gruver’s pulse was weak and they couldn’t tell if he was breathing. Gruver’s blood alcohol level was .495, more than six times Louisiana’s legal driving limit, when he died from what an concluded was “acute alcohol intoxication with aspiration.” He was 18.

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As college students begin a new semester this fall, many will participate in rituals to bring in new members of a Greek fraternity or sorority, a sports team or other club. Sometimes, the initiations involve heavy alcohol use or physical assaults. Although awareness of hazing and its dangers has grown significantly, it still happens.

In June, New Mexico State University agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit over hazing allegations in the men’s basketball program. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she will be introducing anti-hazing and abuse legislation next year. In July, Northwestern University fired its head football coach after an found widespread hazing on the team. And Boston College its swim and dive team this month following hazing allegations.

At least 44 states and the District of Columbia have anti-hazing laws in place, most recently Ohio in 2021 and Pennsylvania in 2018. Kentucky and Washington strengthened their laws this past legislative session. Six states — Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming — have none, according to StopHazing, an anti-hazing advocacy and research organization.

But state anti-hazing laws, most of which were approved in the past 15 years, differ in their definitions and the criminal penalties they impose. Depending on the state, participating in hazing activities may result in a fine, misdemeanor charge or a felony charge if the hazing results in serious bodily harm or death.

Some experts and anti-hazing advocates say the penalties in some states aren’t harsh enough to deter organizations from participating in hazing. And even in states that have laws, incidents like the one that left Max Gruver dead don’t necessarily lead to serious criminal charges.

Four former LSU students and ex-members of Phi Delta Theta were indicted in connection with Gruver’s death. Three of them faced misdemeanor hazing charges, while the fourth faced a felony charge of negligent homicide. The university also banned Phi Delta Theta from its campus until at least 2033.

Gruver’s parents — Rae Ann and Stephen Gruver — pressed for stiffer penalties for hazing, prompting Louisiana to enact the  in 2018, which made hazing that results in serious bodily harm or death a felony; introduced a statewide definition of hazing; and mandated that hazing incidents and disciplinary actions taken against members of student groups be reported to the respective host institutions.

“It’s unfortunate that with the death of our son — it took that to get Louisiana to change their laws,” Stephen Gruver told Stateline. “It’s something that can be prevented; this never should have happened to our son.”

Since then, the Gruvers, along with parents of other hazing victims, have advocated for stricter state and federal penalties for hazing and greater transparency when such incidents occur.

“If you don’t have a strong enough law, it’s not a deterrent for these kids and they’re just going to keep on being bad actors because they just don’t care,” Stephen Gruver said.

Hazing’s wide reach

Hazing, a practice rooted in tradition and camaraderie, has long been a controversial and pervasive issue on college campuses. While hazing incidents have garnered significant national attention over the past decade, the earliest account of hazing is believed to date back to the fourth century — when Plato observed young boys playing “practical jokes” on other students in school, according to a written by journalist and anti-hazing advocate Hank Nuwer. The first anti-hazing law in the United States was enacted in New York in 1894.

In the U.S., more than 280 people allegedly have died due to hazing since 1838, according to the . The database is maintained by Nuwer. Hazing deaths are not currently tracked by any U.S. government entity.

In 2017, the year of Gruver’s death, at least six other young adults also died a result of alleged hazing activities. Between 2018 and 2021, at least 23 people allegedly died due to hazing activities. No hazing deaths were reported in 2022.

According to a by two University of Maine professors, more than half of college students involved with student organizations experience hazing, which often involves “alcohol consumption, humiliation, isolation, sleep-deprivation, and sex acts.” The study, which is considered the most comprehensive analysis of hazing in the United States, also found that about 47% of students come to college having already experienced hazing.

“Hazing is prevalent throughout society. It’s not just a college thing. It’s really seen anywhere that there’s a differing power dynamic,” Todd Shelton, the executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network, told Stateline. Hazing appears in settings such as high schools, other student groups, the military and professional workplaces.

In many states, hazing carries misdemeanor charges — a fact that some advocates argue does little to effectively deter hazing incidents.

“Where hazing is a minor misdemeanor, it’s not taken seriously by law enforcement because it’s not worth the effort to prosecute,” Shelton said. “One of the biggest hurdles is getting the penalty or statute to match the seriousness of the crime.”

In Kentucky, was signed into law in March, increasing the penalty for hazing that leads to death or serious physical injury to a Class D felony, by up to five years in prison. Reckless participation in hazing can result in a misdemeanor.

And in Washington state, the , which was passed unanimously and signed into law in May, makes hazing a gross misdemeanor instead of a misdemeanor; if the hazing results in substantial bodily harm, it rises to a felony. The law bumps up penalties for hazing from a maximum of 90 days to up to a year — and up to five years for the felony charge.

Washington became the 15th state to elevate hazing to a felony if it causes severe injury or death.

“For the first time we’re talking about hazing in a very real way. There’s been a culture of secrecy, in my view, of hazing for many, many years,” Rep. Mari Leavitt, a Democrat who wrote the bill, said in an interview with Stateline. “Students will recognize that there is a pretty significant consequence for choosing to behave in these barbaric activities and it can change the trajectory of their lives.”

The new law follows the passage of in 2022, named after the same student, which updated the definition of hazing and required universities and colleges, as well as fraternity and sorority chapters, to make hazing investigation records public.

“The more that people are aware, and willing to talk about it and willing to report what they see, that will start to change that culture of secrecy to something that holds people accountable and also is transparent in terms of what’s happening across states,” Leavitt said.

Anti-hazing movement

In 15 states, a major weakness in the anti-hazing law, according to , is the absence of a “consent clause,” which asserts that an individual’s willingness to participate in potentially hazardous actions — as when a student agrees to a certain activity — does not protect those involved from hazing charges. Some anti-hazing laws explicitly spell out that consent is not a defense.

“The consent clause … is really important in terms of documenting hazing and having policy be really effective,” said Elizabeth Allan, the principal of StopHazing and a professor of higher education at the University of Maine. Allan co-wrote the 2008 national study on hazing.

Advocacy groups also have been pushing for national anti-hazing legislation to establish uniform definitions and penalties.

Proposed federal legislation, originally known as the Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act, or REACH Act, was initially introduced in Congress in 2021. This year, it is set to be reintroduced under a new name, the Stop Campus Hazing Act. The legislation encompasses a range of transparency and prevention measures, including mandatory public reporting of hazing incidents and the implementation of comprehensive prevention programs.

“Hazing is often underreported, underrecognized and it’s really not being taken as seriously as it should be given the harmful impact that it has on individuals and communities,” said Jessica Mertz, the executive director of the Clery Center, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting campus safety.

Among Greek fraternities and sororities, discussions around cracking down on hazing have gained momentum. Still, critics argue that most state anti-hazing laws should impose tougher penalties on national Greek life organizations and institutions, rather than individuals.

“As a founding member of the Anti-Hazing Coalition, the North American Interfraternity Conference and our member fraternities advocate for stronger federal and state hazing laws to increase criminal penalties and provide greater transparency to hold individuals accountable when found to be involved in hazing,” Judson Horras, CEO of the North American Interfraternity Conference, said in a statement.

“While in this partnership, we have seen stronger state laws passed in over a dozen states and are encouraged by the introduction of the bipartisan Stop Campus Hazing Act in the 118th Congress last week,” the statement said.

A by a Penn State University professor and published in the Journal of College and University Law underscores this argument. Law professor Justin J. Swofford argues that for legislation to be most effective in deterring future hazing injuries and deaths, there must be greater criminal and civil penalties imposed on both schools and fraternities.

However, some voices within the Greek life community question whether genuine change is achievable. Lucy Taylor, who disaffiliated from Alpha Phi at the University of Maryland and hosts “,” a podcast exploring Greek life, suggests that change within Greek organizations can often appear performative.

These initiatives may encompass disciplinary committees, mandatory anti-hazing programs or even the hiring of security teams, Taylor said.

“They make it seem like change is happening, but those things that they’re doing to create change don’t actually have any power. If they wanted hazing to be gone, it would have been gone years ago,” Taylor said. “They don’t do anything or they don’t do what they’re intended to do, and the hazing culture just becomes even more secret.

“The more secret it becomes, the worse it gets.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on and .

LEXINGTON — The death of 18-year-old Thomas “Lofton” Hazelwood sparked a conversation across Kentucky — one that, for many, was long overdue.

On Oct. 18, 2021, the first-year student was found unconscious at the University of Kentucky’s Farmhouse Fraternity house. He later passed away from alcohol poisoning.

“I had no clue what was going on. He was joining the Farmhouse, and we were told that it’s just a bunch of good old boys,” Tracey Hazelwood, Lofton’s mother, said in a recent telephone interview.

The time after her son’s death was marked by grief, shared by the community in Henderson County, where Lofton resided most of his life. Signs, t-shirts and text messages in support of Lofton supported his family through forever heartbreak, his mother said.

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Two months after Lofton’s death, high school students proposed anti-hazing legislation during the annual Kentucky Youth Assembly mock government. Students approved the bill overwhelmingly, laying the foundation for Senate Bill 9, known as Lofton’s Law.

Since the bill was introduced last year, Tracey Hazelwood has engaged with students, community members and legislators on the dangers of hazing, a tradition that happens in secrecy and, she says, too often. It’s not limited to college campuses; just last month, was reported among football players at Henderson County High School.

“Hopefully to God they’ll stop. My son passed away and I don’t want anybody else to ever go through this,” said Tracey Hazelwood. “We feel like we owe it to him to do this.”

Nolan Abdelsayed, a University of Kentucky senior and member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, agrees. Though he says he was never hazed, he supports anti-hazing legislation.

“If a parent sends their son off to college, I don’t think that they should die for no reason at all — just so they can make friends,” Abdelsayed said.

Lofton’s Law

would make hazing a separate crime in Kentucky and establish penalties for intentional and reckless participation in hazing. Intentional participation in hazing that leads to serious injury or death would be a class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison. Reckless participation in hazing would be a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $500 fine. The bill applies to students.

Kentucky would be the to classify hazing that leads to death or serious injury as a felony.

As Lofton’s Law awaits a Thursday hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the sponsor, Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, said he will introduce a committee substitute in response to concerns that the bill’s original language is too broad.

Cortney Lollar, a professor of law and public policy at the University of Kentucky, said the bill’s language is “very broad – in my view, overly broad – and has the potential to bring people under its scope that are not intended.”

SB 9 states that the misdemeanor statute would apply to anyone who “recklessly” participates in hazing. Prosecutors could argue that “reckless behavior” includes giving money to an entity that provides alcohol to minors, leaving room for potential misdemeanor charges to all dues-paying members, even if they didn’t attend the party, Lollar said.

A senior fraternity member who has previously attended parties where underaged students were drinking would have a difficult time arguing he was unaware that an underaged student would be drinking at a future party, for example, she said.

“Virtually any imaginable hazing incident can, and has been, addressed by existing laws,” Lollar said. “It is unclear to me what purpose is served by adding this new crime to our criminal code.”

Mills, the sponsor, said his committee substitute will tighten the language to avoid prosecutions of uninvolved people. Among the tweaks will be clarifying the definition of hazing “participant,” he said.

Mills acknowledged that wanton endangerment and other laws already on the books could be used to prosecute participants in hazing that causes injury or death. But Mills said hazing warrants its own law to emphasize the dangers and to send the message that “this is a serious issue and not something just to joke about.”

Making hazing a felony or serious misdemeanor will have a deterrent effect on students, who now think they face nothing worse than expulsion, Mills said. They would know that the consequences of hazing could include jail time, probation and a criminal record.

“That just gives you a bigger stick to say ‘don’t do this.’” he said. “If we can make the law stiffer to make sure that people know it’s a serious issue, and it saves a life, it’s worth it to me.”

Sean Callan, a lawyer who specializes in fraternity, sorority and student life organizations, agrees. He is a managing partner of Fraternal Law, a Cincinnati firm that provides counsel on hazing, crisis and incident management. Callan commends SB 9 for its focused language.

“If someone is severely injured or killed by some of this activity, it needs to be a felony,” Callan said. “I know people in the fraternity community will support something like this.”

Hazing on Kentucky’s campuses

The prevalence of hazing is not easily captured. There is no formal method of tracking it and institutions are not required to report hazing behaviors to other entities. Nonetheless, an estimated 26% of college students belonging to campus groups have experienced at least one hazing behavior, according to a 2018 .

Between 1959 and 2021, there was at least one hazing death a year in the U.S. involving a school, club or organization, according to journalist Frank Nuwer, who

The Lantern filed open records requests for student conduct records with four universities. The University of Louisville did not respond. At UK and Eastern Kentucky University there had been 25 reported instances of hazing since Jan. 1, 2021, according to the records. Western Kentucky University reported no incidents of hazing.

The University of Kentucky received 13 hazing reports in the timeframe. Approximately 5,500 UK undergraduates belong to 39 Greek organizations.

• Ten reports involved hazing in nine fraternity chapters. Alleged offenses included requiring new members to “sit in a basement with pillowcases on their head for an hour or so,” purchase alcohol and wear a fanny pack with “smelling salts, condoms and matches” to present to older members when asked.
• Four reports concerned Farmhouse Fraternity, where Lofton Hazelwood was found unresponsive. found that Hazelwood consumed approximately 18 one-ounce shots of bourbon within 45 minutes. Although no signs of physical coercion were found in connection to Hazelwood’s death, UK’s report detailed multiple occurrences of other hazing activities within the fraternity. Interviews revealed that new members were subject to line-ups and berating and expected to provide personal servitude and participate in illegal activities, among other things.
• Two documents reported hazing in a sorority. The investigations did not find the chapter responsible.

According to , 11 of the 25 registered fraternity chapters are on some sort of restriction, ranging from disciplinary probation to revocation of registered student organization status for previous offenses of campus conduct.

Western Kentucky University tracked zero reports of hazing since Jan. 1, 2021. As of the spring 2022 semester, the university had 2,203 students in Greek life, .

Eastern Kentucky University had 12 reports of hazing in the timeframe. As of spring 2022, the university had fewer than 1,000 students in Greek life, .

• Ten reports involved fraternity chapters. Alleged offenses included drunken driving, sexual assaults at parties, humiliation and drug use.
• One report was filed against a sorority, where individuals allegedly “required and coerced members” to attend events surrounding alcohol. The report showed screenshots in the chapter’s group message where a member wrote “… if a frat is holding a mixer for us and you’re going out in Richmond that (night), you’re expected to stay there for at least an hour.”
• Another report detailed alleged hazing in the university’s club hockey team after an EKU police officer found members “taking a sign from a gas station,” according to a misconduct report form. The officer found a 36-point “scavenger hunt” list that asked new team members to deliver food and alcohol, sneak onto a sorority dormitory floor and shave an eyebrow — among other activities — in exchange for “points.”

The results of these incident reports were not provided. Aside from EKU’s club hockey team, each organization involved is a .

Students: Hazing legislation is “necessary”

Students who agreed to be interviewed by the Lantern said Lofton’s Law is a logical response to hazing on college campuses. More than a dozen members of Greek organizations declined to be interviewed.

Alicia Gowan, a University of Kentucky junior and member of Pi Beta Phi sorority, said, “Fraternity culture from the outside looks great when they’re promoting philanthropy, involvement on campus and high GPAs.” On the inside of these organizations, she believes that most men have likely experienced some form of hazing.

Lawson Hill, an Eastern Kentucky University freshman and member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity, considers hazing less of a problem than it used to be, but says legislation is still necessary.

“A lot of guys I know are legacies, which means their dads were in (fraternities) a long time ago. They tell me some of the stories, and I think ‘wow, that could kill somebody,’” he said. “I couldn’t imagine shoving a bottle down someone’s throat. That’s just inhumane.”

Shannon Chen, a freshman UK student and new member of Alpha Gamma Delta, heard about hazing rumors through classmates, including a story of a pledge who was “treated horribly.”

She said fraternity members “pay what? A thousand dollars to get their car thrown up in? If the bill goes through, at least the top members will be like ‘we can’t do this.’”

With support from their community, the Hazelwood family is creating an endowment to fund scholarships for Henderson County residents. Two students going into agriculture will receive $5,000 scholarships; there will be a $2,000 scholarship for a trade school student.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on and .