Proposed bill seeks to criminalize hazing

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Proposed bill seeks to criminalize hazing

By Michael Gurovitsch
Daily Staff Reporter
October 17, 2003

Two bills introduced yesterday morning in the state Legislature would make hazing a criminal offense in Michigan. Michigan is one of only a handful of states that does not have anti-hazing legislation on the books, said Emily Carney, chief of staff for Sen. Michelle McManus (R-Traverse City), who introduced the bill.

"This would expressly prohibit hazing practices at education institutions," Carney said. The bill applies to all public or private middle schools, high schools, vocational schools and universities in the state.

Carney said the proposed bill would be particularly effective because it would remove student consent as an allowable defense.

That provision would have changed the outcome of the recent Sigma Chi fraternity hazing on campus. Earlier this week, Washtenaw County prosecutors decided not to press charges against Sigma Chi members for the hazing of a pledge who was sent to the hospital with acute kidney failure. Prosecuters said the pledge consented to the hazing activities, according to reports from The Ann Arbor News.

Although the timing of the legislation comes after the allegations against Sigma Chi, Carney said McManus began looking into the legislation this summer after the issue was brought to her attention by a resident adviser at Ferris State University in Big Rapids.

Interfraternity Council President Branden Muhl said the Greek community is not only against hazing, but was also in the early stages of formulating its own legislation in cooperation with University officials, which they hoped would be introduced by a state legislator sometime in the future.

"We fully support this bill," Muhl added. "The IFC has always come down hard on the side of anti-hazing in the past."

Under the provisions of the bill, penalties for hazing range from 93 days in prison and a $1,000 fine for a non-serious injury to 20 years in prison and $10,000 for injuries resulting in death.