Anti-hazing law overdue, victim's mother tells lawmakers

Jim Provance, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
·4 min read

Apr. 1—COLUMBUS — The mother of an Ohio University student who died after a hazing incident in 2018 urged state lawmakers on Wednesday to take a stand against the practice the same way students on college campuses across the state are now doing.

"We don't want another family to go through the pain and loss our family has experienced," said Kathleen Wiant, mother of Collin Wiant, 18, from Dublin, Ohio, who died of asphyxiation after inhaling a canister of nitrous oxide.

"Sadly another family has," she told the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee. "The hazing death of Stone Foltz further underscores the importance of getting this bill passed and not having it stall as it did last November. No family should ever have to go through what his family has gone through. No family should ever have to go through what my family has gone through."

Senate Bill 126, sponsored by Sens. Stephanie Kunze (R., Hilliard) and Theresa Gavarone (R., Bowling Green), would create "Collin's Law."

Mr. Foltz, 20, of Delaware, Ohio, died in early March following a Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity event during which, a family attorney has said, he was given a "copious amount of alcohol."

The bill would generally increase penalties for hazing and create the new crime of aggravated hazing, a second-degree felony carrying up to eight years in prison.

A charge of aggravated hazing may be brought if the victim is physically harmed or killed and either the hazing was performed with reckless indifference to the safety of the victim or the victim was coerced or forced into consuming alcohol or a drug.

Tyler Perino, of Waterville, told the committee of being subjected to repeated hazing as he pledged a fraternity at Miami University in Oxford. He said it culminated in a full night of brutal paddling and forced liquor consumption. After being returned home, his girlfriend called 911, and he was unconscious when taken to the hospital with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal driving limit.

"Sadly,a culture of hazing has taken hold in too many organizations and campuses throughout our state," Mr. Perino said. "It's often embraced as tradition. Young people accept it and then go on to be perpetrators of it. Some even feel like it's an important part of their growth to adulthood. It has to stop."

After the incident, he transferred to the University of Toledo close to home "to get a fresh start." He is studying psychology.

In some respects his story is similar to that of Mr. Foltz — except he survived to tell it to legislators.

"It's almost like deja vu," he told The Blade after his testimony. "People go through exactly the same thing, whether they get beat physically or forced to do things that benefit the older members. A lot of it is surrounded by forced drinking. Forced drinking is the heart and soul of this whole problem."

Sen. Terry Johnson (R., McDermott), the committee's chairman, told Mr. Perino he believes the bill has a "good chance of rocketing through the Senate." An anti-hazing bill that has passed the House last session stalled in that chamber.

Senate Bill 126 would define the general crime of hazing as knowingly forcing or coercing a victim to ingest food, alcohol, drugs, or other substances that place a victim at risk or causing substantial risk of emotional harm.

The severity of the crime would climb from a fourth-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to 30 days in jail, to a fifth-degree felony, punishable by up to a year, if the victim is physically harmed.

The bill also creates new crimes of supporting hazing and failure to report hazing. It would require volunteers, administrators, employees, and faculty of a public and private institution of higher education to report hazing along with volunteers and officials of a fraternity, sorority, sports, club, or other organization.

It requires colleges and universities to adopt anti-hazing policies that, among other things, could tie violations to the withholding of student diplomas and revocation of an organization's right to operate on campus.

Also voicing support for the bill Wednesday were prosecutors, the Ohio attorney general, universities, and fraternities.

First Published March 31, 2021, 5:11pm

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