Legislation revises current laws aimed to combat hazing
The battle to deter hazing on college campuses continues with a bill on the way to the Governor’s desk authored by Lafayette Representative Nancy Landry. It revises the state’s current anti-hazing laws based on the recommendations of law enforcement. Landry says among the changes is the amount of time given to organizations to report hazing activity to law enforcement.
“It requires the organization to report as soon as practicable when a hazing incident has occurred instead of giving them a sort of two-week grace period,” said Landry.
Landry says the changes come so that the organization and law enforcement can conduct their investigations concurrently, but it allows law enforcement to analyze the freshest evidence to determine if the incident is a criminal matter.
“Evidence was not preserved during that two-week period and it was impeding the investigation of officers once the incident was reported,” said Landry.
Landry says with the changes, campus police are allowed to take their hazing investigation beyond the campus.
“Some organizations were actually taking their hazing activities off campus to avoid detection and campus police are generally in the best position to know about hazing and know who the hazing perpetrators are,” said Landry.