2008 marks the 30th year since Chuck Stenzel died pledging Klan Alpine (now abolished) at Alfred University (NY).
Statement by Eileen Stevens:
Today, forty four states have outlawed hazing.
Sadly, many of these statutes have ambiguous language, and are difficult to enforce.
Those few that have been tested in the courts to date have not served as sufficient deterrents to those determined to haze in the misguided name of tradition.
The reality is that kids, in New York and all other states, keep getting hazed. Some have died, and many have been seriously injured physically and/or psychologically.
Because of secrecy and peer pressure, most incidents go unreported.
As Security on Campus has shown, too many institutions and organizations avoid bad publicity at any cost…and do not sufficiently educate or punish when hazing occurs.
Often the cost is the safety of our students. We need more aggressive legislation such as the proposed New York hazing law with specific definitions, that will make those involved accountable. Lukewarm penalties don’t work to end hazing.
Isn’t it time that those young students whose futures were taken needlessly and recklessly, are honored and vindicated by a tough New York law that will deter hazing in any form.
My beloved son Chuck Stenzel will be dead 30 years this month. One of the earliest New York hazing laws was named the Chuck Stenzel law in his honor.
My prayer is that New York finally puts a law into place that is a stiff law, that will stop hazers in their tracks……or have them imprisoned to carry a permanent record as felons.
