by Rubyanne Moley
In 2012, an Arizona State University fraternity pledge event caused 19-year-old Jack Culolias to drown in Tempe Town Lake due to excessive alcohol consumption.
Now, 10 years later after Culolias’ death, Gov. Doug Ducey signed “Jack’s Law” into effect on Sept. 24th. “Jack’s Law”, legally known as House Bill 2322, makes hazing a class 1 misdemeanor. In the case of death, the perpetrator can be charged with a class 4 felony.
In the time ranging from Culolias’ death to the signing of House Bill 2322, many other students, friends and family faced the effects of hazing.
According to the State Press, a potential member of ASU’s Kappa Sigma was forced to take a medical absence for a semester in 2018 due to “dangerously severe weight loss” and a “likely fatal diabetic coma” from pledging related events.
He was among 55 other ASU students pledging, or the process one most undergo to become a member, to Kappa Sigma. To potentially become a member of Kappa Sigma, the students faced “excessive alcohol consumption, confinement to hot sheds and sleepless nights” from members of the fraternity, said State Press reporter Jasmine Kabiri in the article covering the incident.
In 2019, AZ Central reported a former pledge filed a lawsuit towards the Theta Chi chapter at University of Arizona for chemical burns sustained to the eye and a blood infection. According to the lawsuit, the potential member had hot sauce thrown into both his eye and was unable to finish his freshmen year from the hazing he had undergone.
Following these events, lawsuits were filed and fraternities were kicked off campuses, but no anti-hazing law was enacted until this year. Why did it take Arizona so long to adopt a law against hazing if the number of hazing victims continued to rise?
It is known that Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, sponsored the measure. Kavanagh actively posted tweets displaying his determination to make “hazing a criminal offense”, as he said in a tweet from Aug. 16. He signed the law into effect alongside Gov. Doug Ducey.
Gov. Doug Ducey himself may have even faced hazing in his past. Back in 2014, Ducey tweeted his membership to the fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha chapter located at ASU. Pi Kappa Alpha was known as the rival fraternity to Sigma Phi Epsilon, the fraternity Culolias lost his life pledging for in 2012, according to Blog for Arizona.
Grace Culolias, mother of Jack Culolias, also pushed for the bill she worked alongside Kavanagh to bring the law into action, according to her guest opinion piece for the Capitol Times. After the incident, Grace filed a lawsuit that claimed “the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity was grossly negligent in its November 2012 pledge drive”, according to the Associated Press.
The Arizona Digital Free Press also stated that the family of Christian Leventhal, the student who took medical leave due to pledging, also contributed to the bill.
Marcos Guzman, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Fraternity & Sorority Programs at UA, concluded that many states choose to be reactive in their lawmaking when it comes to hazing.
“There is no federal law that prohibits hazing and hazing kills. It’s being decided now by the states and usually there is a hazing death in that particular state that then triggers lawmakers to want to institute some sort of hazing law,” said Guzman. “We saw that at LSU, we saw that at Penn State. Ohio is one of the most recent ones after Arizona and that was following a death.”
Arizona took their time in joining the rest of the states to make hazing a crime. Arizona is the 44th state to make hazing illegal, according to Arizona News. Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Wyoming are the few to have no laws against hazing.
Tucson news reported the bill was passed with a 12-1 vote, with only Rep. John Fillmore, R-Apache Junction, in an unknown opposition. The bill was then passed in full by the House.
Hazing laws lead to more awareness for college communities, which can inspire those affected to speak out. By speaking out and through education, colleges and the state can help to end hazing incidents.
ASU is making a push for education to prevent hazing and any other practices that would put students in “harm’s way”, as stated by Gary Ballinger, Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life at ASU.
“Last year, we started putting more emphasis on teaching modules on alcohol, sexual violence, etc.. With alcohol being a component there, we are trying, from our perspective of fraternity and sorority life, to get a better completion rate from our members,” said Ballinger. “Everybody is required, or asked, to complete those modules. But oftentimes there might not be any specific follow-up.”
Education promotes awareness, which can help to break the fear that stops many students from reporting hazing.
“You have to talk about it a lot. You can’t just have a program that says hazing is bad. Most students when asked if they have experienced hazing will say they haven’t when in reality, they have,” said Guzman. “The more we can acknowledge that it is wrong, we hope that more people will report, or the behavior will start to maybe dissipate.”
On top of awareness, Guzman said UA and other Arizona universities are working to create and implement rules on campuses and within departments to abide by House Bill 2322. These initiatives will change the way universities report and handle hazing incidents.
Ballinger noted that ASU is working on meeting with their many departments to revise a plan on how to best implement the new bill to the college to make sure that ASU’s Greek community presents representation of leadership and inclusivity.
Following the 10-year wait, Arizona government has made a step in the right direction towards ending hazing and starting the discussion on what’s next for colleges. Soon, many in Arizona hope to see a decrease in these hazing-related incidences.
“I hope that the bill takes undue stress off of those going through Greek life recruitment and encourages more of those to go through with ease of mind,” said Sydney Restino, a sophomore at ASU and Justice for the Greek Review Board. “Sororities and fraternities that do haze will hopefully stop and create a healthier process.”
Contacts:
Marcos Guzman – marcosguzman@arizona.edu – (520) 621-8046
Gary Ballinger – gary.d.ballinger@asu.edu – (480) 965-2275
Sydney Restino – srestino@asu.edu
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