Parents push for stronger hazing penalties in Washington

OLYMPIA, Wash. — There’s a new push in the state legislature to increase the penalty for college students convicted of hazing.

Lawmakers are now considering a bill named for Washington State University student Sam Martinez, who died from hazing in his fraternity.

Right now, hazing is a misdemeanor in Washington.

The proposal now before lawmakers is to make it a gross misdemeanor or a class C felony if the victim is seriously injured.

Martinez was a freshman at Washington State University in 2019 when a fraternity member gave Martinez and another “pledge” a half gallon of rum and told them to drink it in less than an hour.

Martinez died of alcohol poisoning.

“Nobody called 911, and they woke up to a nightmare, and so did we. He’s gone, and I can’t stand by and be worried every time a school year begins that another family will have to go through this because it’s wrong,” said Martinez’s mother, Jolayne Houtz.

Prosecutors charged 15 students with furnishing alcohol to a minor, which, as a gross misdemeanor, was a tougher charge than hazing.

The Sam Martinez Stop Hazing Act would increase the penalty and also extend the statute of limitations from one year to two, giving police officers more time to investigate complex cases.

The bill was first introduced last year and could pass out of a House committee next week.

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