Hazing closer to being a crime in Florida

Hazing closer to being a crime as Florida advances tough lawState legislators are poised to make hazing a crime, punishable by up to five years in jail.

TALLAHASSEE - Four years after their son drowned in a lake at the University of Miami, William and Carol Meredith walked the halls of the state Capitol, hoping to see a law passed that would make hazing a crime.

Wednesday, their quest drew nearer after the Florida House passed what may be the nation's toughest hazing measure -- the Chad Meredith Act. It makes hazing a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison if the victim is injured.

If the bill passes the Florida Senate, the Merediths' lawyer hopes Gov. Jeb Bush will sign it into law along Lake Osceola, the spot on the UM campus where Chad Meredith went for a swim early on the morning of Nov. 5, 2001.

''We need to give some meaning to his death,'' said David Bianchi, the Merediths' lawyer who helped push the bill. ``He should not have died. He was a terrific, terrific, first-class young man.'' Meredith, an 18-year-old freshman from Indiana, tried to swim across the lake with Kappa Sigma fraternity president Travis Montgomery and fraternity officer David May. They had been drinking.

Swimming on the lake had been banned since 1980, when another student drowned. Meredith wasn't in the fraternity and the brothers argued in civil court last year that they were not acting as fraternity members. Police concluded it was not hazing. But a Miami-Dade civil jury last year ordered the brothers to pay Meredith's parents $12.6 million, deciding Montgomery and May were acting as fraternity members when they pressured Meredith, exposed him to danger and then abandoned him as he screamed for help. The brothers appealed. Bianchi said Wednesday that the Merediths have settled the case confidentially with the fraternity's insurance company.

Florida is one of 43 states that already have anti-hazing statutes, but Rep. Adam Hasner, a Delray Beach Republican who is sponsoring the bill, said current law isn't strong enough because it lets universities dole out punishment.If the bill's partner in the Senate passes, Florida would join just three other states -- Illinois, Indiana and Utah -- where hazing incidents that result in injury or death are considered felonies. Under Hasner's bill, someone convicted of hazing can get a year in jail, if no one gets hurt. If a victim of hazing is injured or killed, the hazers face up to five years in prison, even if the victims participated in activities willingly.But in some -- if not most -- hazing cases, large groups of students are involved.

Since 1970, hazing has resulted in at least one death per year in the country, according to Hank Nuwer, assistant professor of journalism at Indiana's Franklin College and a recognized expert on hazing. America's first hazing death happened in 1838, Nuwer said. Nuwer said many years there have been multiple deaths. But he cautions against focusing solely on fraternities. Hazing happens at workplaces, in the military, within club and professional sports, fire departments, police departments and in marching bands.

Hasner's bill addresses high schools, colleges and universities but not other groups with possible initiation rites.Messages left for the current president of UM's Kappa Sigma chapter were not returned Wednesday night and members who answered the house phone did not want to talk about the bill.But another fraternity president said he welcomes tougher laws. ''There are many forms of [hazing] and I don't think any of them are good,'' said Dell ''D.J.'' Dailey, a University of Florida junior and incoming president of the campus Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter. 'Unfortunately, there are a few fraternities out there that are `bad eggs,' '' he said.

The lone voice of opposition on the House floor Wednesday, state Rep. Chris Smith, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, said he thinks the legislation goes too far. ''If you break the law, you are already breaking the law,'' Smith said, citing underage drinking and physical abuse involved in most hazing cases. At UM, Meredith drowned just 34 feet from the shore in almost seven feet of water. His blood-alcohol level was reported at 0.13 -- over the legal limit to drive a car in Florida. In the civil case, the two fraternity brothers who swam with Meredith were found responsible -- not the fraternity. Though Meredith wanted to join the fraternity, the brothers argued that the swimming was not related to his possible initiation.The Senate companion to Hasner's bill is scheduled for a floor vote and is not considered controversial. But nothing is guaranteed in the harried final days of the legislative session. Bush's spokesman said he has yet to take a position on the measure.