Consent? Ohio - Bowling Green State U. (Kappa Alpha Order)

[exlurker]

According to the December 6 '06 Toledo Blade, Bowling Green State U. is investigating possible hazing. Pledges of Kappa Alpha Order were found outside covered in paint and being yelled at.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll...EWS21/61206011

The article reports that the chapter president said the pledges had signed waivers of liability and were participating voluntarily.

I'm not a lawyer, but maybe a member of the Ohio bar or someone extremely familiar with Ohio law could answer a question or two.

Ohio law seems to me to say that consent is not a defense to charges of hazing. Does that mean that the "waivers of liability" are not worth much in an instance like this?

Ohio law:

http://www.stophazing.org/laws/oh_law.htm

[squirrely girl]

its my understanding they were doing "paint the rock" which is pretty standard at BGSU and other chapter members, including the president, were participating with the pledges

[Kevin]

My understanding of Ohio law is nil.

But with consent, you're talking about a defense in tort or criminal law.

The waiver of liability is a contractual tort thing.

A liability waiver only works if something happens and someone gets hurt. The question is whether consent to an illegal act is valid. I'd guess that it's not, but I have no idea.

[exlurker]

Originally Posted by squirrely girl

its my understanding they were doing "paint the rock" which is pretty standard at BGSU and other chapter members, including the president, were participating with the pledges

squirrely girl, thank you. Maybe, then, it's just a routine investigation that the university feels it needs to do so it can say it does its job of paying attention to its policies*. Hope it all gets settled without undue trouble. Thanks again!

*Edited to add -- it might be important for the university to do so to protect itself and perform its fiduciary duty to Ohio taxpayers and donors against the possibility of future lawsuits about hazing, even if not connected to this alleged "paint the rock" incident? Excerpt from Ohio law:

In an action against a school, university, college, or other educational institution, it is an affirmative defense that the school, university, college or other institution was actively enforcing a policy against hazing at the time the cause of action arose.

[squirrely girl]

there was an article about it in the school paper today and it also mentioned somebody reported it anonymously after walking by and seeing people covered in paint and cursing/yelling/being loud

not to make excuses but when i painted the rock back in the day i had more paint on me than the rock at the end of it all and we were all hella loud and it wasn't just a pledge/nm thing but rather something that the whole chapter does together