FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This week, the U.S. House of Representatives took a big step to protect college students who are joining fraternities and sororities.
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the House unanimously passed the Stop Campus Hazing Act.
Arkansas already has an anti-hazing law in place, but if passed, the new law would prohibit hazing at the federal level.
Along with existing hazing policies, the law would require colleges and universities to report hazing incidents in their Annual Security Reports, publish online anti-hazing policies and the names of any organizations that violate them, and provide anti-hazing programs to students.
Before passing the act, lawmakers spoke about the purpose of the law, saying no family should have to go through the pain of losing a child to hazing.
“The only thing we can do now is harness that pain and try to do something positive with it,” said Representative Lucy McBath of Georgia.
The passing of the act in the House comes during National Hazing Prevention Week (Sept. 23-27). Sororities and fraternities at the University of Arkansas showed their support for the week by hanging flags outside of their houses, many of them with slogans like “These hands don’t haze.”
The Stop Campus Hazing Act now has to pass through the Senate.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.