OLYMPIA — Washington’s laws against hazing were significantly stiffened Monday, as Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation named in honor of a Washington State University student who died of alcohol poisoning after he was hazed at fraternity events.
The new law makes hazing a gross misdemeanor, rather than a simple misdemeanor. It makes hazing a felony if it results in substantial bodily harm.
It bumps up penalties for hazing from a maximum of 90 days to up to a year — and up to five years for the felony version. Known as the Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Law, it passed both the House and Senate unanimously.
The law, Inslee said in a signing statement, “reflects the inherent danger of hazing rituals that can pressure college students to consume large amounts of alcohol.”
“This will improve accountability for those who organize hazing rituals at fraternities and sororities and establish a new and much needed culture where students understand that hazing is absolutely unacceptable,” the governor continued.
Sam Martinez was a freshman at WSU when he died in 2019 from alcohol poisoning after being hazed by the former Alpha Tau Omega chapter of Washington State University.
His parents have been advocating for changes to the law ever since.
“Nobody sends their child to college to be hazed,” Jolayne Houtz, Martinez’s mother, told a legislative committee earlier this year. “They’re at the cusp of everything wonderful in their lives, and to have it taken away like that …”
Fifteen people were charged in Martinez’s death, most with furnishing liquor to a minor. The statute of limitations on the state’s hazing law had expired by the time a prosecutor was ready to charge those involved.
The new law would also extend the statute of limitations from one year to two years.
“Sam’s so-called big brother, the one who gave Sam a half-gallon bottle of rum and told him to drink the family drink,” Houtz said earlier this year, “he served just 19 days in jail. One day for each year of Sam’s life.”
The new legislation follows the passage of “Sam’s Law” in 2021, which updated the definition of hazing and required universities and colleges, as well as fraternity and sorority chapters, to make hazing investigation records public.
Since the passing of Sam’s Law, WSU has required all first-year students and staff to complete anti-hazing training.
