WASHINGTON – Students who participate in hazing could forever lose their financial aid under proposed legislation announced Thursday by U.S. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, D-Fla.
“The time for Congress to act is now,” said Wilson, speaking at a press conference with the U.S. Capitol in the backdrop and flanked by staff and supporters holding a banner emblazoned with these words: “Hazing Kills — 163 deaths to date. If you want to haze, lose your financial aid, not for a few days, but for life.”
Supporters at the press conference included relatives of two recent hazing death victims, including Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion Jr., whose death in 2011 refocused the nation’s attention on the problem of hazing.
Champion’s mother, Pam Champion, joined by her husband Robert, called on fraternities, sororities and others to fight against the mindset that hazing is an acceptable part of sorority and fraternity culture.
“We need to stop saying … ‘This is the way it is,’” Pam Champion said. “The way it is is wrong.”
