Collin’s Law hopes to create transparency and harsher punishments for hazing

Kathleen Wiant, the mother of Collin Wiant, spoke at a virtual letter-writing campaign in support of Collin’s Law (Screenshot by Emily Zeiler).

Greek life members across Ohio spoke about the importance of Ohio Senate Bill 126, also known as Collin’s Law, in preventing hazing incidents and creating change in college organizations during a virtual letter-writing campaign kickoff Monday evening. 

The bill was named after Collin Wiant, a freshman who died on Nov. 12, 2018, at the unofficial annex of Sigma Pi fraternity. 

The Athens County coroner ruled the cause of death to be due to asphyxiation from nitrous oxide ingestion; Wiant was found with “whippets,” which are small cans of nitrous oxide, near his body, according to a previous report from The New Political.

The bill was reintroduced in the Ohio Senate on March 11, 2021, after stalling in the Ohio Senate Education Committee in 2020, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

The reintroduction of the bill comes shortly after Stone Foltz, a sophomore at Bowling Green State University, died from an alleged hazing incident at Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) fraternity, according to a report from WTOL11. 

Hazing is currently a fourth-degree misdemeanor in Ohio and is defined by the Ohio Revised Code as “any act or coercing another, including the victim, to do any act of initiation into any student or other organization that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person.”

Punishment for a fourth-degree misdemeanor is up to 30 days in jail and/or a maximum $250 fine.

“Imagine if I brought two people before you and I told you that they were both guilty of a misdemeanor offense. One of them had a parking ticket, and the other one made someone chug an entire bottle of hard alcohol, didn’t allow them to sleep for long periods of time, forced them to do illegal drugs, risking injury or even death,” Kathleen Wiant, the mother of Collin Wiant, said at the event Monday.

Collin’s Law proposes to make hazing up to a second degree felony when certain instances, such as death of a victim, occur. 

The law would also create transparency by requiring universities to have websites where students and their parents can access information on organizations who have violated the student code of conduct in the past.

“There was no information that they [Sigma Pi] had sent a pledge to the emergency room with their head gashed open from a hazing activity,” Kathleen Wiant said. “If we had access to that information when I looked up Sigma Pi, Collin would be alive today.”

On April 5, a statewide letter writing campaign will officially kick off, where people can use a letter template to send their support for the bill to their state representative.

“We have the opportunity right now and in the coming weeks to set the tone that hazing will not be tolerated on our campuses,” University of Toledo Panhellenic President Megan Stoops said.

Ohio University will host its letter-writing campaign outside John Calhoun Baker University Center from April 5 to April 9 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.