BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) wants to stop the practice of college hazing throughout the country.
The tragic consequences to those rituals have touched Louisiana in recent years. In 2017 LSU student Max Gruver died after he was pressured to drink large amounts of alcohol during a hazing incident. Criminal charges and changes to state law would follow.
Now a congressional bill promises to address the issue.
“It’s to improve transparency,” said Cassidy.
He and his democratic colleague Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) held a Zoom meeting Tuesday to discuss their bipartisan bill, the Stop Campus Hazing Act.
Parents of victims from various colleges throughout the country joined the meeting, including Max’s dad, Steve Gruver. He said he didn’t know the fraternity Max joined had a history of problems.
“Four years prior to Max joining they had issues, and just the year before they were suspended for hazing, that was information only the school had, it wasn’t privy to us,” said Gruver.
If the Stop Campus Hazing Act passes, that information would be readily available to all parents and students.
“If all of a sudden an organization has their hazing history published online, and no students or freshmen are joining these organization, they will stop hazing,” said Cassidy.
Cassidy believes he can get bipartisan support, but said the bill has some obstacles before it becomes law.
