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While a bill expanding the definition of hazing waits in the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas Senate adopted a resolution last week honoring the friends and families of recent victims of hazing.
Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) authored Senate Resolution 738, which was read and adopted in the Senate on May 14. The resolution mentions Texas State University student Matthew Ellis among the hazing victims.
“Four bright and beloved young Texans, namely, Dalton Debrick of Texas Tech University, Matthew Ellis of Texas State University, Joseph Little of Texas A&M University, and Nicky Cumberland of The University of Texas at Austin, have died in recent years from hazing or due to circumstances related to hazing,” the resolution reads in part.
SR738 describes the victims as “dedicated students and cherished sons, brothers and friends” and hazing as “a dangerous and pervasive practice that has been implicated in the deaths of too many of this state’s promising young people and has caused long-term physical, psychological, and emotional harm to countless others.”
The resolution goes on to state that the senate gives its “sincerest condolences to the bereaved families, friends and peers of the victims of hazing and commend them for dedicating their time and efforts to ensure that in the future no others need grieve the consequences of hazing.”
Last year, Texas State University president Denise Trauth suspended all Greek activities on campus after Ellis’ death. He had attended an off-campus fraternity event and was found dead the next day. His friend Austin Rice was found guilty of providing alcohol to a minor. and was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine plus court costs. Greek activity resumed on campus after the university developed new regulations for fraternities and sororities.
In the meantime, a bill co-authored by Zaffirini and Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels), Senate Bill 38, passed out of a House committee on April 29 but has yet to be voted in by the full House, the Texas Legislature website shows.
SB 38 would expand the definition of hazing to include “an act coercing a student to consume an alcoholic beverage, liquor or drug,” according to an analysis of the bill. The bill would also clarify immunity regulations, providing immunity for “a person who voluntarily reports the incident and conditions the grant of immunity on the person reporting the hazing incident before being contacted by the institution concerning the incident or otherwise being included in the institution’s investigation of the incident and on the person cooperating in good faith throughout any institutional process regarding the incident.”
An identical bill filed by Reps. J.M. Lozano (R-Kingsville) and John Frullo (R-Lubbock), House Bill 1482, passed out of the House Higher Education Committee with a vote of 10-1. It also has not been voted on by the House.
